Cavender is in Calcutta to greet McLaughlin as he is released from prison. Immediately, McLaughlin is accosted by Sikhs demanding "the book". It's not just Sikhs that want it, so do some Russian aristocrats, a Greek bookdealer, and a woman working for the Irish Republican Brotherhood.
It's not actually a book they want, but the original scrolls of The Iliad that belonged to Alexander the Great. They're hidden in an and McLaughlin is the only one who knows they're there.
This is a pretty lengthy book, with lots of red herrings, goose chases, and, yeah, . People backstab each other, switch sides, and end up dead. Author Tokson does a pretty good job of keeping the chapters short, ending them just at a big reveal, forcing the reader to keep going.
It was slow at first and some of the sections deal with the more depraved and evil actions of humanity. This put a sour taste in my mouth that took a few chapters to forget, but the adventure, mystery, and double-dealing is pretty compelling if not always light-hearted and fun.