A Five-Year Plan » (Abridged, 4 Cassettes)

Hailed as the thinking reader's thriller writer, Philip Kerr has, in a few short years, become a high-profile author of fast-paced suspense fiction including Dead Meat, A Philosophical Investigation, The Grid and Esau.

Dave Delano didn't spend five years in a Florida prison idling away hard time. His five-year plan aimed to put a million-five into his own pockets. In the former Soviet Union there are a million scams. Most lucrative is money laundering. Refitting U.S. yachts to hide dirty dollars and transshipping them across the Atlantic on huge transport ferries destined for the European playgrounds of the international rich, the mob magically "disappears" the cash, moving it through Black Sea ports and into Russian banks. Dave Delano thinks some of that money should be his. It's a simple matter of hijacking one of those yacht ferries on the high seas. For the Colombian cartel, Europe is a magnet. But landing their cocaine is another matter. When FBI agent Kate Fury gets a hot tip they are shipping it in a hollowed-out yacht hull via transport ferry, she knows she's onto the biggest collar of her career. Boarding that ferry, she's set to pounce. But she hasn't counted on Dave Delano, who has his own personal agenda.

Library Journal

Narrator Boyd Gaines seems to have an enormous amount of fun with the characters in Kerr's latest thriller, who include mobsters, Russians, porn stars, and assorted ocean-going scoundrels. During his five years in prison, Dave Delano developed a plan: get aboard a sea transport and hijack a large yacht that is smuggling money for the Russian mob. Such a plan takes financing, so Delano turns to the American mob for backing, which they give along with Al, a ruthless button man who is their loan security. Meanwhile, FBI agent Kate Fury and her Kansas-bred, ocean-loathing, oversexed male supervisor are working the same transport looking for illegal drug shipments. And then there is the all-female crew of a yacht owned by a porno film company that is also being transported. Patrons who like Donald Westlake's Dormunder series will enjoy this. Highly recommended.--Ray Vignovich, West Des Moines P.L., IA