In the continuing adventures of Brigid Keenan, the "trailing spouse" of a diplomat, we find her dealing with life in Kazakhstan, navigating her daughters' weddings, coping with a cancer diagnosis, and getting a crash course in grandmotherhood, while facing up to her greatest challange yet: retirement.

"Sergeant Lester Ferris is a good man in need of a rest. After a long career of being shot at, he's about to be retired. The mildly larcenous, backwater island of Mancreu is the ideal place to serve out his time, a former British colony in legal limbo, belching toxic clouds of waste and facing imminent destruction by an international community concerned for their own safety. The perfect place for Lester is also the perfect location for a multinational...