Four Star Goodreads Rating - relaxed paced fiction] It was 1943 in San Diego. Rationing was still new. Smuggling is something much older. Millions of people sought their fortunes in the wartime American west. Nicolas Guyon is among them. When a routine security job goes haywire, Nick must build a team from scratch to take on a powerful industrial giant. Luckily for him, there are scoundrels to spare on all sides of the booming black market world.