Nutshell:  In WW2, a freelance spy asks himself: What does the Wehrmacht want to hear?  He invents it (easier than working ) and takes the pay. Also the risk.

Nutshell:  WW2 ends; money runs out. But where there's arrogance, there's gold. Our man cons the great witch-hunter, Senator Joe McCarthy, and finds a crock. Several crocks, in fact.

   

"Robinson's dialogue is beyond compare - he hits the ground wisecracking on the first page and is still at it, without any signs of flagging, at the novel's close. "
                       Mike Petty - THE OBSERVER 

The novel is  based on the true story of an agent codenamed Garbo. who found a way to turn

World War Two into big business: invent an endless supply of Allied secrets, sell them to

German Military Intelligence, make a ton of money. In the novel he becomes Luis Cabrillo

(codename: Eldorado), a young Spaniard with no nerves and too much imagination.  But

life gets complicated. His American  girlfriend has scruples as well as freckles.  German

officers doubt his brilliance. British Intelligence interferes. Guns go bang and bodies fall.

Still, Luis never quits.  Will Eldorado be the first spy to gross a million? Why not? Top of Page

Luis Cabrillo's roaring trade as a bogus spy selling fake secrets to Germany is too good.

British Intelligence recruits him.  Now he's a double-agent, based in Britain, with a network

of phony sub-agents, all selling Allied deception plans to Hitler. Power  -  even imaginary

power  -  is intoxicating, and Luis begins to treat his fake sub-agents as if they exist. Such

fantasy is not good for his love life. Meanwhile, real German spies are landing in Britain with

orders (naturally) to contact Luis. Listen, nobody ever said war was simple.       Top of Page

It's 1953, and Luis Cabrillo has spent the small fortune he earned from both British and
German Intelligence in WW2.  Now he has only his wits, his confidence, and his dazzling
skills at lying and cheating.  Teaming up again with Julie Conroy (a corker of a New Yorker),
he follows his wartime instincts and goes where arrogance breeds wealth:  to Washington DC
and Senator Joe McCarthy, high priest of America's holy war on Red treachery. Joe's problem
is a sudden shortage of treachery.  Luis has the answer, for dollars. Big dollars. But when the
CIA gets into the act, followed by the KGB, FBI, MI6, and the Mafia, it makes for an explosive
mixture ripe for a spark.                                                                                    Top of Page