This is the fourth novel in the Martin Taylor art crime series and begins when Martin returns
to New York to give evidence in a murder trial related to the case he had worked on in 2020.
Whilst in New York, the senior editor of the Houston Chronicle newspaper requests a
meeting to discuss an assignment to assist in the purchase of some paintings which will be
auctioned shortly in Houston. The paintings had belonged to a Mexican drug baron who had
moved to Houston and was subsequently assassinated after falling out with his partner in the
drug trade.
The newspaper also wants to write a serialized article about Martin and his adventures for
their weekend magazine which he agreed would be a fantastic way to promote his private
investigation company.
Following the auction at which Martin successfully bid for a number of paintings that will be
hung in the boardroom and some of the senior personnel's offices, Martin travelled to Mexico
City to meet with the art forger who had produced many of the paintings sold at the auction.
He suspected that the drug baron might have secreted drugs in some of the paintings when he
moved to Houston and this proved to be the case. He was kidnapped whilst in Mexico and
thanks to a friendship he had with a senior officer in the L.A.P.D. he was rescued by a team
of his men in Mexico City tracking the movement of drugs from that city to the USA. The
colleagues of the arrested Mexican drug baron arranged for an outlaw motorcycle gang to
harass Martin after he returned to Houston and this harassment followed him to Melbourne
and later to Bilbao where his fiancée lived. The action continues in Bilbao right to the end.