Madagascar is a novel of passion and intrigue set on that strange and spirit-ridden island. Here, diplomat Robert Knott—reformed alcoholic, unreformed gambler, inveterate smart-ass and inconstant lover—has seen his life and career hit bottom. Up to his eyes in debt to to the local casino and its murderous owner, Knott has also earned the deadly enmity of a cold-blooded police captain. Even as he tries to stay alive, Knott is also attempting to free from prison a broken down cowboy named Walt Sackett, in whose fate he sees his own. He is haunted too by Nirina, a Malagasy beauty with the courage to break with the only world she has known in order to find a new life. Behind all this lies the ultimate Joker, and what might be the strongest character in the story—Madagascar—the Island of Ghosts, where the implausible is not only likely, but mandatory.