English agents plot and negotiate in the volatile Islamic environment of North Africa confronting corruption, coups and several murders and uncover an escaped war criminal.

The English government seeks to curtail Islamic attacks on its shipping in the Mediterranean and sends Luke Tremayne as ambassador to the Turkish Empires western outpost of Benbali to negotiate a treaty and free English slaves. His mission is complicated by the corruption and dysfunctional nature of the local English community and the volatile nature of the Benbali government with competing factions and the imminent threat of a coup. Secondary aims to rescue an enslaved English aristocrat, find a stolen golden Madonna, and uncover an escaped war criminal threaten to undermine his mission. This is thrown into further confusion by several murders that Luke is determined to solve despite the death of a close associate and the diversions provided by three alluring women.

Geoff Quaife has been a University teacher, historian, and administrator and has written several works of non fiction, including an overview of the witchcraft craze of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the sexual mores and practices of the English peasantry. He is the author of the previous nine novels in the Luke Tremayne adventure series. Born and educated in Melbourne, Australia he has spent most of his working life in Armidale in regional New South Wales.