Perilous Traffic is a fast-moving crime thriller of fifty-three thousand words. It tells the story of how the central character, Myles Hirst, becomes a drug trafficker. The story commences when Hirst is released from prison after been inside for eighteen months. There isn't a great deal for him on the outside. Despite being an old Harrovian and a member of a well-to-do family, his past work contacts are no longer around to help him. The only person he can turn to is someone he met in prison. It was in prison where Hirst first met Roger Cole. It was Cole who suggests they go into the drug trafficking business. Hirst, although wary at first, agrees to meet Cole and three other men in a grotty south London pub. They discuss a plan to smuggle drugs into the UK and agree to form a syndicate. A day after the meeting; Hirst contacts his closest friend from his days at Harrow. A man, called Piers Harper. Harper has some experience of the illegal drugs trade, so Hirst seeks his advice.The syndicate meet again and agree to traffic a consignment of cannabis from North Africa to Spain, using the services of an old London criminal. Chas Wyman now lives in Spain and owns an ocean-going yacht. The venture proves to be highly successful. Thus, begins a highly rewarding time of importing drugs into the country. Several years pass by. Both Hirst and Harper have legitimate business interests and have retired from trafficking drugs. Hirst hasn't heard from Roger Cole for some time. He's surprised when Cole contacts him and asks him if he would be interested in renewing operations. Hirst is, at first, reluctant, but agrees to meet with Cole. After the meeting, Hirst agrees to get involved in a plan to bring in a batch of cocaine, which, according to Cole, has been left in a house close to Alicante, in Spain, by a gang of British criminals who are now in a Spanish jail. Hirst and several other men, two of whom are unfamiliar to him, go to Spain to retrieve the cocaine. Suffice to say it doesn't go to plan. The house is not unoccupied. A gun-fight breaks out and one of the occupants is shot dead. Hirst decides that he wants nothing more to do with it, but it's too late to back out. He hides his share of the cocaine in an area close to a village near to the city of Orleans in France where his sister and brother-in-law live. The trouble is the cocaine belongs to a group of Irish gangsters, loosely connected to the Real I.R.A. Hirst, now back in London, learns that both Wyman and Cole have been murdered. Two of the Irish gangsters trace him to his London home. They kidnap his partner and threaten to kill her unless Hirst takes the men to France to retrieve the cocaine. Just as he is about to take them to the hidden stash, shots ring out. One of the terrorists kills the other. Hirst anticipates he will be next. However, the two members of the team he didn't know arrive on the scene and kill the remaining gangster. With help from his brother-in-law, Hirst is able to escape and return to London. He's desperate to find his partner. By a quirk of fate, he discovers that his friend Piers Harper, is linked to the terrorist gang and that he has been double crossed. He finds his partner in Harper's house and also discovers that an operation to disrupt the Irish gangsters and retrieve the cocaine was a MI5 led operation.
