The Front Matter

In Cannes, a group of men try to murder a French actress.

In Switzerland, a truck driver has his magazine stolen.

In Croydon, an old Hungarian dies in a park.

All of them connect to a mysterious KGB colonel codenamed Capuchin -- the Monk.

Semi-retired CIA agent Arthur Ffoulkes is tasked with sorting out how these unrelated events tie together and what it means for the Capuchin. He will have to call upon his contacts among Eastern European émigré groups, the Berlin criminal underground, and his past if he to foil the Capuchin's plans before they are put in motion -- and he goes to ground and disappears forever.