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|summary=Bernie's life is on a downward spiral since he lost his job as a journalist; his fiction writing won't pay the rent and his wife has had enough of him. But life takes a real turn for the worse when he is accused of planning to hold-up a big money poker game and organising an armoured car robbery. Suddenly, Bernie's life seems unrecognisable. And then he meets Mr. Gussling.

Now you'd think that someone with no backbone at all – that is to say a person genetically programmed to be unable to fight their way out of a paper bag – would try and keep their nose clean, wouldn't you? Yes, me too. So when Son comes crying to Bernie for the millionth time in their lives because he's got himself in proper hot water with a not-so-small-time hood who thinks Son would look pretty fetching in a concrete overcoat, Bernie realises he probably has to cut Son loose forever. Son, however, has other ideas and when Mr Cement Works somehow comes by the idea that Bernie plans to rip off his high stakes poker game, there is now a matching ticket for Bernie in the front row of the same one-way-ticket ride as Son is destined for. If you were thinking, at this point, that things can only get better, you'd better think again as Bernie also finds himself accused of being the brains behind an armoured car heist and before you can say ''South America'', Bernie is staring down the barrel of an unpleasant and certain death or a minimum of twenty years in a maximum -security state pen.

So, what's a guy to do? If you were Bernie, you'd probably want a little time to mull your future possibilities over before grasping the hopelessness of the situation. But not our hero. Bernie has had it tough the last few years, you see and he is quite accustomed to Hobson's choice. Firstly he loses his job as a journalist and when his laboured efforts at fiction fall flat, his wife, Inez heads off to more fiscally verdant pastures. Losing a job and a wife over an indecently brief period has the tendency to focus ones mind somewhat and the entrance into Bernie's life of Mr. Theodore Gussling could probably be described as either fate or good fortune. Probably. If you believe in karma. But the amount of money Gussling is offering Bernie to go and deliver a ransom demand to his wife's kidnappers in Argentina seem a little too good to be true. It would be an immediate end to his own financial problems – Hell, Inez might even come back – and it would take care of a certain Mr Cement Works and all the trouble his friend Son is in. Naturally, though, the word ''kidnappers'' is a cause for some concern - even for Bernie. Would you get on that plane headed for Argentina? Is Gussling on the level? Would you wonder what the catch might be if it really was just a simple 'courier job'?

For further reading, I'd most definitely like to recommend [[Losing You by Nicci French]] – it's a real heart-stopper. You should also take a look at [[Love in the Present Tense by Catherine Ryan Hyde]], both of which novels we at Bookbag highly recommend. Failing that, perhaps [[Second Coming by Martin Wells]] is more your flavour. You might also appreciate [[Degrees of Guilt by Patrick Marrinan]].