"The Mastermind teems with the pulse of daily life in the tropics: the sights and sounds, the smells and tastes. He takes millionaires, whores, provocateurs, hit men, bankers with deep pockets, and political agendas, and weaves them into a dazzling tapestry. What befalls those driven by hubris--the writing on the wall, a fall from the heights to the depths--are part of the pattern, the biblical tales of warning, the consequences that cannot be...