The wife of a rich politician has been kidnapped by terrorists who want to exchange her in nine days’ time for one of their number who’s in prison. Actor Bob Farran thinks he can im­per­son­ate Tom Lacey well enough that Sally Morland will be freed and he can earn the £250,000 reward.

We spend three quarters of the book preparing for the im­per­son­ation, which gives Farran time to do it well. While the nine-day delay enabled the im­per­son­ation, it makes little sense for the terrorists to have asked for such a delay. The exchange and the aftermath were rather an­ti­cli­mac­tic.