Intrigue surrounds Operation Emerald Necklace, a Nazi plan to invade Ireland during WWII, using submarines specially designed to navigate minefields. In laying "Winston's Welcome Mat" for the incoming American delegation, the plot is discovered. Follows a father/son combination in the past/present, which at times becomes really confusing since they both have the same name. In the present, the son (a bestselling writer of histories) discovers the long buried mystery of the operation, intent on creating another bestseller (his father turns out to be involved on the British side). (SPOILER) Elements of the IRA, wanting to oust the current political leaders, use him as a tool to uncover the wartime actions of the British goverment, who deliberately let the American convoy sink, and believe they were torpedoed by the Germans, instead of victims of British mines, thus speeding their entry into WWII. Either story, past or present, would be fine on it's own...put together, it was all too much confusion. Besides, I kept waiting for it to get exciting, and it just never did. ( )