One of London's loudly hush-hush counter espionage agencies (the kind that's frightfully omniscient about everything except the matter in hand) whisks William Mallet and Helena Otway to Italy. Their presence at her dead brother's last archaeological site is supposed to galvanize a ring of saboteurs-for-hire to further mayhem. Too right. Mallet finds the list of WW II traitors for whom Otway was murdered. The ensuing chase is Hitchcockesque with fast guns and faster cars through intrigue burdened Europe. Jolly good.