Diversion: Ahab’s Folly: A Tale of Spies, Lies, and Wise-Guys 

Harry is drawn back into the Quandary orbit when his restaurant partner goes missing, and a dead North Korean RGB agent is found murdered on Benten Island under the torii gate of the Itsukushima Shrine, near Matsumae Castle in Hokkaido, Japan. A Japanese Naicho CIRO agent, a Mossad Kidon agent, and twin brother casino operators join Harry and his Quandary colleagues to unravel the latest attempt by the Chinese and North Koreans to disrupt the financial institutions in the West.

Are the documents found on the dead RGB agent clues to a North Korean kidnapping scheme to raise money to pay their Chinese benefactors for keeping the Kim regime afloat? Or, perhaps, the purpose is merely to keep the North Korean Generals well-stocked in the finest Irish whiskey and French Champagne so the supreme leader can sleep with at least one eye closed? On the other hand, maybe it’s a smokescreen, a feint attack to hide the real, more nasty and nefarious plot to cause havoc in the situation rooms of Whitehall and the White House. And what does Harry’s missing business partner have to do with it? Or is the missing Sydney Katz just a coincidence? But then, Harry doesn’t believe in coincidences.