'A clever blend of villainy' - SUNDAY TIMES When Ryme Lady disappears with all hands and a 60 million dollar cargo, American hard-man Art Lemman and English ex-lawyer Gavin Blair investigate for the International Maritime Bureau. The ship-owners are fighting against liquidation and are fearful of a predatory attack from Carl Klodinsky, an American shipping tycoon. But has Ryme Lady actually sunk at all? Or is it an insurance scam, piracy or an act of international terrorism? On whose side is Claudine, the chic French-American assistant to Klodinsky who exploits Blair's vulnerability? Through Paris, Singapore, New York, London and West Africa, death and violent destruction threaten the investigation and only when Cerne View, a huge cargo vessel, is attacked and arrested in West Africa do Lemman and Blair realize that something far more sinister is involved . . . nothing less than an international outrage involving the White House and Downing Street. Despite their uneasy relationship, the investigators have to work together against that most deadly of enemies . . . time. Praise for Douglas Stewart 'His pungent stories pound through their plots'DAILY MAIL 'He makes us think but entertains us in the process - tense and gripping'EVENING TELEGRAPH "Stewart's writing is fast-moving and laced with that natural British sarcasm that comesso effortlessly. Tough to put down" - RICHARD MARCUS "Do read this superb novel" - SUNDAY INDEPENDENT 'So hard to put down . . . that one awaits his next with high expectations'A1 CRIME Douglas Stewart did not start writing professionally until he had become an international lawyer. Ever since, he has juggled writing with legal issues in the UK and USA before taking early retirement, giving him more time to focus on writing. After a stint in Las Vegas, he is now back in Europe where he lives with his wife. The Scaffold is the second of three novels involving Bristol solicitor, Alistair Duncan.