The ship Maria Vasquez is intercepted in the Bay of Naples and her cargo of contraband cigarettes seized. Through his involvement in this dramatic operation, UK Customs and Excise man Rob Sullivan is drawn into an investigation that will endanger not only his life but the lives of those closest to him.On secondment to the EU anti-fraud squad in Brussels, Sullivan"s absence from the family home in England has put serious strain on his marriage and made the chemistry between him and his enticing Dutch counterpart, Claire Colmar, all the more difficult to deal with.Romantic involvement aside, Colmar and Sullivan are a formidable and tenacious team. Their mission, they realise, is to successfully identify and bring to book the criminal minds at the head of the powerful smuggling cartel. The difficulty is that these are powerful men with a veneer of legitimacy and friends in all the right places: "rich men in suits who mix with politicians and bankers, sophisticated businessmen who go to black-tie dinners at international finance conferences, who can borrow millions at the shake of a hand".The pair"s grim determination to prove that no one is "too big to get caught" leads to some chilling confrontations with highly trained assassins. Tension builds to breaking point in these gripping scenes and shows Paul Adams at his descriptive best. His pulse quickening denouement is crying out for translation to the big screen. Shadow Chasers is a fast-paced, well-crafted thriller. The EU has never seemed so exciting. --Sarah Crawford