"Cash's Lovejoy, whose numerous escapades have earned him an army of delighted followers, is never completely out of trouble. But in Lovejoy's own world, there are those who have it in for the brash antiques dealer: his dealer, competitors, his customers, numerous delightful women (and sometimes their husbands), and the British police, aided by an avid bounty hunter. Usually Lovejoy can slide out from under, with the help of his rare skill as a "divvy," a person with the inborn ability to "divine" the authenticity of an artifact. When that doesn't work, he's very good at talking himself out of trouble. Failing all else, he runs." Lovejoy is running now. The bounty hunter is on his trail, the police want him for stealing a forgery he created himself, and he has been reduced to clerking in a bric-a-brac store catering to tourists in the city of Southampton. His plan is to flee the country on one of the port's many visiting cruise ships. This time, though, partly due to the treachery of an old flame and partly to some canny planning on the part of a clever criminal, Lovejoy is tricked into being held on a ship when it sails. He's treated royally as a passenger, but to his dismay he discovers that they need his knowledge for the commission of a crime in a foreign country that will result in one of the most daring and amazing thefts in history. But exactly what they want him to do remains a mystery. When he finally finds out, his former trouble will seem to be mere schoolboy scrapes.
