"All human evil comes from man's inability to sit still in a room." Pascal

Frank Knox is an operative of Rutherford Risk. He is also an art expert. His company deals in government contracts and information. It was shaped in the image what the first director of the CIA did with that organization.

Knox is sent to Istanbul to make contact with a man he's dealt with in the past. The man is an art connoisseur. The man's brother is Iranian and there is suspicions about him. Knox is to work with his so called partner, Grace Chu. She knows about computer technology and self defense and is good person to have in a tough situation.

They are to offer the man an invaluable piece of art that has been thought to have been destroyed.  Frank's superior wants Grace to trail the money the men might have in purchasing the art piece.

Even though there is a great deal of action, the novel is slow and uninteresting.  Frank and Grace are pursued by Iranians, Israeli agents and agents from Turkey. Frank is stabbed, tasered, hit with a re-bar and shot. Both he and Grace are captured and released more than once and finally, the reader wishes that they would just get on with it. At one point Frank states that the pieces just don't fit and the reader feels exactly the same.

That is the problem with the story. Who are the villains? Are the men using the art as a currency for weapons? Is there a sinister plot from Iran? We don't know and after a time, the reader ceases to care.

I've enjoyed Ridley Pearson's work in the past and consider myself a fan but the writing and plotting in this book don't measure up top his past efforts.