Peter Bennet, a boat builder in Cornwall, naively undertakes some unfinished business for a friend, who has just been murdered by a hit man in mysterious circumstances. Before long he finds himself in the midst of the murky world of arms dealing, drug smuggling and working with British Intelligence in Afghanistan. The year is 1982. The Russians have invaded Afghanistan and the Western powers are working together to undermine the occupation.
A generation later, in 2006, Peter’s experiences are reawaken when his grandson is captured while serving in the British occupational force.
In the meantime Peter’s intervention has ruined the plans of sone drug smugglers who order his assassination by their hit man.
The author moves the story along at a fat pace and skilfully interweaves the various threads of the story to its thrilling climax in Cornwall.
As a coda to the story, and one full of irony, Peter finds himself once more in Afghanistan on the opposite side to his former comrades, who are now committed to the Taleban.