The next adventure of Delilah Dirk and Selim, this one has the pair struggling to disable the defences of a port town, under the control of a cruel person, to allow a ship to enter during a storm. Job done, they encounter a Dutch journalist who sets them off on a quest for hidden treasure. Joining them on the quest, they discover artefacts that appear to point to the location of a mysterious city known as the Third Pillar of Hercules.

On their journey, they would encounter an old enemy. But their greatest danger may well be with them, for the journalist accompanying them is not above embellishing the story of their adventures, as well as having a hidden agenda for finding the fabled city that is only revealed at the end.

This book is not quite as exciting as the second one, for the stakes involved are not quite as personal to Delilah Dirk (compared to the second book). However, the excitement does get turned up at the end when hidden agendas are finally revealed and old enemies meet again, perhaps to come to a kind of stalemate.

After the earth shaking events in this book, who knows what will happen next to Delilah Dirk and Selim as they settle back, drink some tea, and wait for their next adventure.