John Hopkins

The political will to intervene drains away, and with it goes the need for men like Riley.

With the days of slipping across borders with diamonds in his pocket well and truly over, his decadent lifestyle is catching up with him.

And so, despite never having officially divorced his first wife, Margaret, Riley looks again for an advantageous marriage.

In Berlin, he meets a young woman calling herself Pepita Bobbidilla.

Seemingly glamorous, exotic and wealthy, in reality she is as much a reinvention as Riley himself.

Her real name is Nellie Chambers from Blackburn, Lancashire.

though it is true that she is a widow newly in possession of a good deal of money.

For a time, Pepita's money ensures the hotels remain grand and the champagne continues to flow.

But by the mid-1920s, Riley is entangled in financial disputes with creditors, mounting bills, and legal claims over failed ventures.

The fortunes he once made so effortlessly are no longer being replenished.

But then word reaches him of something extraordinary.

Inside Soviet Russia, an underground anti-Bolshevik organization is said to be operating at the highest levels.

Calling itself The Trust, it has a role for Riley that could put him back on the map.

It is an extraordinary proposition.

Priceless Russian art idling in museums with no security.

A covert anti-Bolshevik network waiting for leadership.

Money enough to fund a counter-revolution and to restore Riley's own fortunes in the process.

On paper, it is almost too good to be true.

Now, Riley is not a fool.

He knows the risks.