Sam Cassady knew he’d hit bottom when he heard the cell door slam closed. There’s an air of finality to that clang of metal on metal, when the walls of a squalid cage close in around you and you know, for real, that you’re in there to stay....

Paul O’Shaughnessy is an American con man on the run from the FBI, hiding out in Bogotá, the Colombian capital. He’s running his latest scam from a bar stool in the lounge at the Hotel Tequendama, and when he finally gets a fish on his line,...