'A mine is a hole in the ground with a fool at the bottom and a crook at the top.' - Mark Twain A billion dollars is a lot of money but not for Jim, a trading whizz kid. While buying into a new mine in Congo his broker has gone missing in the Jungle.

Baz Mycock is a shady mining promoter who will stop at nothing to part speculators with their money. Barron Mining could be just the killing he has always planned. 'Man bites Dog' is a Congolese child soldier, trapped and enslaved by a conflict of unprecedented brutality.

In The Twain Maxim their paths cross under the malevolent gaze of Nyiragongo, Africa's most volatile volcano as the lure of untold mineral riches sets off a trail of devastation.