Patalliro!

Patalliro VIII rules diamond-rich Marinera with formidable intelligence, boundless energy, and a talent for making everyone around him miserable. The kingdom's wealth attracts conspirators, leaving British agent Bancoran to protect a monarch whose behavior can be as unpredictable as any enemy's scheme.

Assassination attempts, espionage, and Patalliro's own mischief send his companions far beyond palace life, sometimes beyond the ordinary limits of time and place. No crisis seems capable of suppressing the young king's appetite for a joke at someone else's expense.