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Based on Jeffrey Archer's first best-seller, this adventure game can best be described as a computerised novel. Game and book are closely linked, so it is advisable to read the book (included) to benefit fully from playing the game.

The player is guided through the plot, and presented with many difficult puzzles which require some lateral thinking to solve. Once an action is taken, there's no turning back!

You play Stephen Bradley, a professor at Magdalen College, Oxford, who has been swindled out of $250,000 by Harvey Metcalfe, life-long king of shady deals.

Starting off in your college room, you must compile a dossier of information on Harvey. A telephone allows you to contact your stockbrokers, who helpfully inform you that you are not the only victim of Harvey's swindling - there are three other suckers.

So your task is to band together to steal the money back - total of $1,000,000. Not a penny more, not a penny less.

First you must meet these people. There's Robin Oakley, doctor - Jean Pierre Lamanns, art dealer - and James Viscount Brigsley, unmarried actor with a mention in Who's Who.

The game differs from usual adventures in that you don't have to search through locations to find each character. Instead, you simply type EXAMINE followed by a name, and you are taken to him. For example, if you wish to meet Robin Oakley, you first book an appointment at his surgery, type in EXAMINE ROBIN, and you find yourself in his waiting room. There, as in other locations, it is necessary to think carefully about how to extract the maximum information, which involves talking to the right people at the right time.

This sets the scene. Next you must persuade the victims to band together, and finally you must co-ordinate them as they help each other with the stings.

I played the Atari ST version, the first one available, and there will be differences between this and other versions. The BBC B/Master version will be text only, whilst the others will have text and graphics, with speech added in certain locations.

The vocabulary is a bit limited for the ST but due to the nature of the game, this becomes only a small niggling point as the puzzles start to take over and compensate for this.

This is a tricky game requiring careful thought and planning. If you read the book whilst playing the game, then you will find it a lot more enjoyable. Due to the nature of the plot, the game is aimed at the more experienced adventure/strategy player, or those people with a lot of mental agility.