The Backup Men Author:Ross Thomas This is one of a series from Thomas about the co-owners of "Mac's Place" a well regarded restaurant in Washington D C.They are McCorkle,who is also the narrator of the book, and his partner Michael Padillo, who is the pivotal figure of the novel. Padillo, in the past, had been an agent and a hit man for the US government and still has connection... more »s with influential figures in the espionage and political world.
They are asked by a male/female pair of Swiss twins to act as backup men on a job the twins have accepted, to guard a young Arab prince who is about to inherit the wealth of an oil rich state and who is the target of assassins who wish to stop him from signing over key oil leases to the West. They decline. Events take a darker turn when the male twin, Walter Gothar, is found starngled in McCorkle's apartment and the partners are pressured by Washington to take the assignment of guarding the Prince.« less