The creator of Captain Jose Da Silva and Lt. Clancy adds another irresistible character to his mystery roster. Robert L. Fish presents the world’s greatest smuggler in The Hochmann Miniatures. His name is Kek Huuygens. He is known to customs officials the world over. He has smuggled everything from an original Bach cantata to a two-ton Indian elephant. And he’s never been caught — even with the elephant. The Hochmann Miniatures, however, is more than a smuggler’s tale. It’s a novel of revenge, primeval passions, betrayed love. A long time ago Kek Huuygens swore to kill a man: Colonel Wilhelm Gruber, SS officer of Hitler’s Polish occupation army. It was Gruber who murdered Huuygens’ family and married Jadzia, beautiful, vicious Jadzia, first and only love of Huuygens’ life. A phone call from an old Resistance comrade to Huuygens in Paris informs him that Gruber is hiding out in Lisbon... that Gruber wants to escape to Brazil and take with him a collection of priceless miniatures... that Gruber in fact needs the services of a first-rate smuggler. After twenty-five years Kek Huuygens’ hands are around his enemy’s throat. Suspense mounts at jet pace when Huuygens flies to Lisbon and meets the Nazi fugitive. It all seems so simple. The smuggler will pretend to get Gruber and his contraband masterpieces out of the country. And then he will kill him. But what about Frau Gruber, what about Jadzia, the beguiling jezebel whom Huuygens still loves? For Jadzia there is a special plan. A plan that has nothing to do with revenge. Or so it seems. Here is a new kind of thriller — harrowing, humorous, and wickedly ironic — that tells the story of what happens to a man when he dares to play judge, jury... and executioner

The world’s most successful smuggler, Kek Huuygens, returns in this tale of blackmail, white flesh (slightly compromised), and money, money, money, by the author of the popular Captain José Da Silva novels. What kind of suitcase is worth $10,000 plus expenses to the messenger who carries it from Buenos Aires to Barcelona — sans customs inspection? Kek Huuygens was a professional, and he wasn’t about to pick up the bait until he knew a little more about the oily Señor Sanchez, who offered him the job. But while he was checking on Sanchez, the little man was working on his own form of travel insurance — underwritten by blackmail and deftly designed to play Huuygens right into his hands. When challenged, the amused Huuygens decided to play the game with Sanchez’s pack of second-rate con men. But he underestimated the opposition — and the persuasiveness of a lady in distress

There was only one man Kek Huuygens didn’t recognize at the bar of New York’s exclusive Quinleven Gambling Club. But when the man invited him for a drink. Huuygens suddenly realized he was facing Victor Girard, a criminal with an international reputation. Girard desperately covets a very rare and valuable carving kept under tight security on a Caribbean island, and he bets Huuygens $50,000 that he can’t get it past the U.S. Customs. Huuygens takes the bet: but the professional thief Girard has retained bungles the job. and to win. Huuygens not only must carry out an “impossible” robbery, but devise a devilishly ingenious plan that will get the treasure past the inspectors who have been alerted to its disappearance. A tale of mounting tension climaxed by an astonishing surprise that confirms the author’s talent at creating “touch and go adventure that works out brilliantly.” — Bestsellers

Kek Huuygens does not come through customs the way other people do. He is known to the customs officials of every country in the world. He is searched. He is stripped. He is humiliated. But still he is successful. Kek Huuygens, born in Poland, with a Dutch name, carrying a valid American passport, is the cleverest and best-paid smuggler to ever exasperate a customs inspector. In these adventures, Huuygens smuggles everything from a Bach Cantata to a priceless collection of miniature paintings, outwitting a former Nazi officer, the entire banking community of Belgium, and the ex-president of a Caribbean island. The exploits of Kek Huuygens have been recounted in four novels: The Hochmann Miniatures, Whirligig, The Tricks of the Trade and The Wager. There have been seven short stories, originally published in Argosy, MD and Playboy. All are collected in this volume