Take a dash of an unsolved mathematical hypothesis which promises wealth in abundance to whoever proves it, take a pinch of insight into the bloody Chechen conflict, an American financier who has dreams beyond avarice, a dollop of the foibles of Cambridge mathematicians and a good helping of the world of the immigration Bar plus a sprinkling of that old devil called love and you have the ingredients of a terrific cake of a first novel which is far from being half-baked. It got me turning the pages fast, if anything too quickly, because I had to revert a couple of times to earlier descriptions of locations, an understanding of which proved essential to later action. If the author publishes more, I will buy!