Defrauding an insurance company is not an unusual crime, but the way Stephen Venner planned to do it was not only unusual but macabre. But then Stephen Venner was a totally selfish and amoral man, and with the push of blackmail behind him, and the strength of his wife to support him, there was little he would stop at.

Ross MacLaren didn't know that, and allowed himself to be lured to Portugal where he, Stephen and the beautiful but repressed Emma play out the last tense act of at least one of their three lives.

Donald MacKenzie was born in Ontario, Canada, and educated in England, Canada and Switzerland. For twenty-five years MacKenzie lived by crime in many countries. 'I went to jail,' he wrote, 'if not with depressing regularity, too often for my liking.' His last sentences were five years in the United States and three years in England, running consecutively. He began writing and selling stories when in American jail. 'I try to do exactly as I like as often as possible and I don't think I'm either psychopathic, a wayward boy, a problem of our time, a charming rogue. Or ever was.'

He had a wife, Estrela, and a daughter, and they divided their time between England, Portugal, Spain and Austria.