The Republic of Maldives is a group of islands southwest of India and Sri Lanka, a touristy destination for the well-heeled and shadowy heels alike. One fine day in 2011 a body washes up on Thulusdhoo island, the victim's passport identifying him as Craig Cooper.
That's a bit of a conundrum since the real Craig Cooper ("Coop"), Deputy Director of the "Agency," is very much alive in Washington, DC. Five months earlier he and his Agency partner Zoe Fields had been shot; while Coop quickly returned to work, Zoe "remained in a deep coma for eight weeks…."
But now she's well, and not a moment too soon. Coop convinces the Director to bring her back to the Agency (despite her disappearance for a time "with nine million dollars of Agency money," told in Book II, "She's Missing").
They are no strangers to dangerous international assignments (Coop is shot in the back in Book I, "Missing," as he searches for the rumored Iraqi gold hoard after the demise of Saddam Hussein). And now it seems Israel wants to find a rogue Mossad operative, Lev Cohen, who with his girlfriend Rachel Kagan murdered the Mossad director and absconded with the nine million.
Earlier Zoe had pumped three bullets into Kagan's chest but Lev is nowhere to be found. And then word comes from the chief of the Maldives National Defense Force and Police Service, Shaquille Azeez, that the body is Craig Cooper is in the morgue.
Well, game on. When Coop is thrown into a Maldivian jail, he enlists a fellow prisoner to work on an escape plan. With Coop missing in the Maldives, Zoe sets out to find him. Along the way an intricate plot is revealed, spycraft is pushed to its limits, and, as Coop observes, "in this business, betrayal never comes from our enemies. It always comes from our friends."
Paull's crisp writing and endearing heroes make the pages fly by, but let the reader be warned: Trust no one.
