Face to the Sun

Edmund Hawkins is down on his luck in London, after a brief sojourn in an African dictatorship. In desperation for cash he steals a woman's bag in which, in addition to money, he finds a mysterious gold pendant, which, it transpires, is the national icon of Malpelo, a small Central American country.

Intrigued by the pendant, and flush with money from the theft, Hawkins decides to travel to revolution-riven Malpelo, setting in motion a train of dramatic and far-reaching events from which he will be lucky to escape.