The champagne mission

He is Thames Barn - gentleman, ghost, and the last man you want on your trail. And this time, a princess's life is the stakes.

A secret summons at his London club pulls Barn into a ruthless bargain: Princess Champagne of Velmarin has been abducted from her yacht in the Adriatic, and her captor - the cultured, ice-cold arms broker Anton Vayne - will trade her freedom for only one price: the Argus Dossier, a briefcase of war-strategy documents that could set a region ablaze in the wrong hands. In six days Vayne will auction the dossier to the highest bidder regardless. Barn has one week to free the princess and keep the dossier out of Vayne's grasp - or both are lost.

From a multimillion-dollar jet screaming out of England to a candlelit majlis in Dubai, from a night-vision stakeout of a desert compound to a container dock at midnight and a fireworks gala aboard a billionaire's yacht, Barn plays the most dangerous double game of his life. Armed with a new gadget for every job, a silver V12 that outruns everything on the road, a beautiful jet, a sleek yacht, and his father's old chronometer ticking against his wrist, he negotiates with men who never honor a deal - and then makes them regret it.

But Vayne knows he is coming. And the auction is already counting down.

THE CHAMPAGNE MISSION is the sophisticated, globe-trotting Thames Barn thriller - ten chapters, one mission, and a princess for cover. Fearless, impeccably dressed, and gone before the applause.