3.0 out of 5 stars
Yes... but., February 28, 2011
Ms Klausner's review is largely correct. Good story, great setting, an interesting look at an area in transition in several senses of the word. It is not a mystery, despite the subtitle, as the bad guys are obvious from the get go.
There are a number of intensely irritating errors that detract from the overall credibility of the story. One would think this sort of thing would not happen given the author's really first class credentials in her field. Which, come to think of it, may be the problem.
The map making arm of the UK government is the Ordnance Survey, not ordinance.
Scale is expressed as 1:10,000 not 1- 10,000.
Lily's training rifle, correctly identified as to make and model, is not a 22 millimeter weapon, but .22 caliber. 20mm rifles are small anti-tank weapons, and nobody builds a 22 millimeter shell. I also have grave doubts that the recoil of a .22 caliber weapon would knock Lily over in the fashion described in the book.
One does not "hammer" armor plate onto a jeep. At the very least welding, or with sufficient power tools, bolting.
Glubb Pasha did not have helicopters under his command in 1943. The first allied operational helicopter, the Sikorsky R-4 did not go into production until late 1943, and was not operational until 1944. It had room for only one passenger.
The devil, so they say, is in the details. Details in a novel with a historical setting are particularly important. Artistic license is one thing- moving the time of Glubb Pasha's invasion of Syria, for instance- but just easily caught flat out errors are another.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
terrific World War II Middle East espionage thriller, July 28, 2010
With the world at war, following her first escapades working for the OSS, its chief General Donovan (see The Torch of Tangiers) sends archaeologist Lily Sampson on assignment in Trans-Jordan. With her surveying the desert are the Director of the American School of Archeology in Jerusalem Gideon Weil and photographer Klaus Stein.
When their jeep axle breaks, Lily notices a sandaled foot sticking out of a sand dune. They find the corpse of a Bedouin. Meanwhile, another Bedouin who Gideon knows, Jalil ibn Akram arrives and takes Klaus with him to the Desert Patrol Outpost so he can get help. Lily and Gideon brush the sand off the victim's face and find their guide Qasim ibn Achmad. Jalil returns and arrests Gideon for murdering Qasim.
As Lily seeks proof that her companion is innocent, she continues her OSS mission and soon identifies two oil pipelines running through the desert; one of them supplies the Allies while the other the Axis. Each side of the conflict wants to sabotage the enemy's oil supply while Lily also finds out the Nazis plan to assassinate eight-year old King Faisal of Iraq.
The key to this terrific World War II Middle East espionage thriller is the deep look at local culture, in which several diverse value systems are spotlighted. The story line is fast-paced from the moment the heroes find their guide's corpse and never slow down for a breather. Although the villain is obvious and stereotyped, readers will fully appreciate this profound look at the people of Trans-Jordan while the west is at war.
Harriet Klausner
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