Tempted to find a highly valuable, seven-hundred-pound chess set, hapless crook John Dortmunder musters his merry band of fellow ne'er-do-wells on a haphazard treasure hunt that prompts his investigation of Russia's last czar.

All John Dortmunder and his old pal, Andy, have to do is dig up a grave, switch a couple of corpses, and close it up again. But John can't help wondering why Fitzroy Guilderpost would pay $1,000 just to switch a couple of 70-years-dead indians.

Fred Fitch is a man who is both pure of heart and substance but utterly credulous. If there is a scam operating anywhere--his rooming house where the General needs a loan to print his revelation of the secret history of the government, the street where the Little Sisters of the Poor are raising funds for the homeless, or just about anywhere in between--Fred finds it or it finds Fred to the same uncertain end. Fred even has his own contact, Reilly,...