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Published Sep 2008
320 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Late at night on the eleventh-floor balcony of a deserted building on the Persian Gulf, American businessman Steve Kemp finds himself falling back in love with Helen -- the Irishwoman he'd left more than a decade before -- as bombs explode below.
Kemp returned to the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia as a last attempt to find success. Fired from his job in L.A. and divorced from his wife, he hoped to salvage his finances in a peaceful part of the Middle East. But he arrived to find a country on the verge of a political meltdown, where an explosive mix of resentment, revolt, and jihadists threatened the regime. And he found his old flame Helen, who was now married to a diplomat at the end of his career.
The overextended military props up the crumbling monarchy, buying a little time -- time Kemp and Helen use to rekindle their affair. As the country plunges into violent political crisis, Kemp focuses on financing his escape with Helen. All he needs is one last big sale -- their contract out.
The country enters its final descent when Kemp's sale at last appears. The deal will be complete once Kemp visits a correspondent bank. It is standard procedure. But suddenly the picture darkens. The bank is on the wrong side of an obscure island. Helen, and even her husband, may have had a hand in the sale. And the terms may be more ambiguous -- and more dangerous -- than Kemp had thought.
"Lathrop, who knows the Middle East well from his years of working there, invokes both The Quiet American and The Ugly American, but the deft manner in which the reader is kept guessing who the "good" guys and the opportunists are is the author's own. " - Publishers Weekly.
"Dry as a proper martini, providing the same pleasant effect." - Kirkus Reviews.
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