Book I of Hook, Line and Sinker. Bernard Samson - protagonist of Berlin Game,Mexican Set and London Match - plods through a Washington blizzard. Old pals are not as friendly, colleagues not so confiding as they used to be - or so it seems to him. It's been three years since his wife Fiona defected - a rejection on several levels and the tough, cynical and macho Samson finds rejections difficult to contend with. And after this trip to Washington, his life becomes even more precarious. Ignoring all warnings, friendly or otherwise, Samson pursues his own investigation into Fiona's defection. More competent than he would have the reader believe; less adept than he supposes at the intricacies of human relationships and the working of women's minds, he moves from one dark and perplexing scenario to the next - from London to the South of France and from Berlin to California, where Bernard Samson receives the surprise of his life.