Product Description

As Saddam Hussein's troops amass at the Kuwaiti border, preparing for invasion, Special Operations Forces position themselves and their super-sensitive equipment to plug the security leaks and find a mole before Operation Desert Storm ends in disaster.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2363711 in Books
• Published on: 1995-07
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover

From Publishers Weekly
Franklin's first novel, a thriller set in the Mideast before and during Operation Desert Storm, carries blurbs from H. Norman Schwarzkopf, former Carter press secretary Jody Powell and others. Despite the good words and its apparent insider's take on the U.S. military and Arab customs, however, it's a shrill narrative, marred by clunky prose and melodramatic characterizations. Elaine Landon, still tortured by having seen her husband die in the 1981 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, is a CIA communications expert assigned to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to ferret out a treacherous security leak within the ruling family in the days preceding Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. Among her ever-mounting list of duties, Elaine has a major role in the orchestration of the U.S. strike force for Desert Storm. Meanwhile, intrigue abounds among the Saudi ruling class, which includes brilliant, beautiful Naila Saud, a U.S.-trained pediatrician recalled home to consummate a traditional Muslim marriage of convenience arranged by her menacing brother. Interesting insights into Arab culture and mores, vivid accounts of the harsh treatment sometimes meted out to those who break with tradition and incidents of forbidden love are entwined with the high-level machinations of a U.S. military so encumbered by politics as to be nearly nonfunctional. As a Mideast primer, this is engaging though not without prejudice; as fiction, it's crudely manipulative. Any puzzlement over why Schwarzkopf wrote a blurb disappears when the general?who appears often in the narrative?announces: "Ray, I'm a man of conscience. After Vietnam, I went to the woods for a long time and thought about what had happened. And I said to myself that if it ever came to a choice between compromising my moral principles and performing my duties, I would hang up my uniform." Photos not seen by PW. 100,000 first printing; major ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

A great read!
I loved this book--it was recommended to me by a friend who knew that I had spent time in the Middle East & I have to say, the story really evokes the essence and flavor of the area--you can almost smell the incense as you read. The plot kept me up all night--just couldn't put it down...Great suspense/espionage, also a poignant love story.

Adventurous, Exotic, and Fully Believable
This is a great book! My wife and I both read it after having lived in the Middle East for several years, and were pleased at the author's care to present Arabian life and culture in an accurate fashion. But this is not a story about Arabia, nor is it a story about war; it is an engrossing tale of espionage, love, betrayal, and three people trying to save a precarious government from collapse. I would like to give the book five stars, but the edition I read contained several spelling errors near the end; it looked as if the proof-reader had been in a hurry. But I do recommend the novel.