Civil servant Richard Eusden is persuaded by his ex-wife Gemma to take a briefcase to Richard's long time friend Marty Hewitson, who is also an ex-husband of Gemma.

The briefcase belonged to Marty's grandfather Clem. It seems to contain documents relating to a visit to the Isle of Wight by the Rumanian Tsars family in 1909. There is also a connection with the events surrounding the claim by a woman, a few years after the massacre of Tsar Nicolas II's family in Ekaterinburg in 1918, that she was the Tsar's youngest daughter Anastasia. Clem Hewitson apparently gave evidence at the court case involving the woman who became known as Anna Anderson, on behalf of a Danish friend, whose descendants now own a worldwide Finnish Conglomerate, whose origins are mysterious. Richard and Marty get involved with some very dangerous people which is made all the more difficult as Marty is dying of a brain tumour.

The author is a master of the adventure novel with breathtaking travelling between the Isle of Wight, London, Holland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Finland and this book is up to the usual standard of excitement and involved intrigue, however I thought some aspects were too implausible, but that did not detract from my enjoyment.

Geoff Jones, England
February 2010