54

Set in 1954, Italy, and Yugoslavia (Croatia mostly) at the height of the Cold War with the Russians trying to bring Yugoslavia back to Communism.

Lucky Luciano fixing horse races & dealing heroin. His fixer Steve Cement (after the concrete shoe services) gets picked up for a murder and held 3 months under interrogation. Meanwhile he needs to recover the tv set that he hid the drugs he skimmed, to make his sale and escape out of Italy.

Pierre has lost touch with his father who is in Yugoslavia, but has fallen on the wrong side of Tito. Pierre must complete some work for a smuggler to pay his way to Yugoslavia to track down his father, but is also in trouble with the husband of the woman he is having an affair with.

Cary Grant meanwhile, is asked by MI6 to go to Yugoslavia to meet with Tito, as background to a film they want to make to bring Tito to the British. Of course he must go undercover.

And somehow, albeit tentatively in some cases, the threads of the story comes together.

It was interesting the real people who were woven into the story - Luciano Lucania, Tito, Cary Grant and James Bonds Casino Royale, a copy of which features in the story.

3.5 stars, rounded down.