Artifice

Artifice

When 30-year-old American golf journalist Ruland Nash visits his friend and former British commando, Monty Havel, in Wales, they barely escape an assassination attempt by an Iranian hit squad. Ruland was on the book tour for the UK publication of his book, A Good Man With a Bayonet: How a golf pro and a former SAS specialist thwarted an Albanian terror plot.

The current attempt on their lives was orchestrated by Amir Ansari, who ended up in Iran’s notorious Evin prison after Ruland had identified him in his book as the mastermind of an embezzlement scheme he and the Albanians operated to defraud cash-strapped Iran.

So badly tortured by the mullahs he almost died, Ansari negotiated a quick release from prison by proposing a way to fund Iran’s terrorism activities, which included sending the hit squads to eliminate political dissidents throughout Europe and the UK. His scheme: use forged art, which Ansari’s colleague, Irish gallery owner Declan Kane, can provide.

To launch his conspiracy, Ansari plans to sell two fake Modiglianis in Kane’s possession. If successful, he would not only raise hundreds of millions of dollars, the Iranian mullahs would never return him to prison.

News of the attack in Wales prompts Pasquale Fontana, Monty’s friend and the head of Italy’s domestic anti-terror unit, to summons them to Venice where he is tracking the hit squads. Fontana tells them he’s caught wind of the art-fraud scam; he also leads them to a key member of his art-fraud unit: Alessandra Dolce. She’s Ruland’s former lover, whom he thought the Albanians had killed, along with her parents, when he and Monty inadvertently lead the Albanians to their home. Overcome with guilt, and devastated by Alessandra’s virulent anger towards him and Monty, Ruland promises to do whatever he can to atone.

That opportunity soon arises when an interview Alessandra gives to an art magazine causes Ansari to lose the sale of the second Modigliani painting. Desperate to salvage the lucrative sale, he kidnaps her to find out what the authorities know about his scheme. But in the struggle to grab Alessandra, she seriously wounds Ansari. Unable to seek medical help locally, Ansari retreats across the Mediterranean to a horrific Libyan camp for migrants, where he’s based. His men drug Alessandra and smuggle her back to Libya where Ansari will torture the truth from her just as soon as he’s fit do to so.

Ruland and Monty, along with another former SAS specialist, come up with a way to enter the camp: they will pitch the commandant, a fanatical golfer, with the prospect of Ruland writing about him for the world to read. The commandant agrees until he discovers their ruse and turns them over to Ansari who plans to kill Ruland and Monty for their role in his incarceration in Evin prison.

As he had done against the Albanians, Ruland uses his golf skills, coupled with Monty’s killing expertise, to rescue Alessandra after a violent struggle. The pursuit culminates in Belfast where they unmask the murderous extent of Declan Kane’s involvement in his forgery scheme. In a tense battle, Ruland and Monty prevail, ending Declan’s life and any threat to theirs.