With former Australian SAS Major, Harry Stevens and the Firebird crew heading home from their harrowing, but lucrative Indonesian operation, a call from the Australian PM sees the crew despatched to beautiful Lord Howe Island to investigate some disturbing events.

How can a beautiful and tranquil sub-tropical paradise have such a rotten core? Harry’s disconcerting habit of attracting trouble strikes again as he encounters:

A wife-beating police officer….. A homicidal maniac terrorising young female tourists….. A major international smuggling operation, involving stolen uncut gemstones….. A very profitable smuggling operation dealing in protected Australian reptiles….. Are any of these linked? Is putting two of Harry’s favourite ladies in serious harm’s way justified? Can Harry’s passion for coming up with complex ‘cunning plans’, save the ladies? And what does one do with a homicidal Police officer in the absence of witnesses and ‘smoking gun’ evidence? Who guards the guardian? Doubts and misgivings plague Harry’s waking thoughts as the darkest side of humanity increasingly shows its ugliest face.

At least with the diminutive, but deadly Corrine helping Harry and Jasper, there is possibly a way.