The Desert Contract

Those concerned about America's dependence on Saudi Arabia as an ally in the Middle East will find nothing of comfort in Lathrop's debut, a somewhat drawn-out account of intrigue, incompetence and inamorata among the sand dunes. When Steve Kemp, a failed American businessman, returns to Saudi Arabia after many years and runs into his former girlfriend, Helen, now married to an older U.S. diplomat, the pair strike up a clandestine romance. Steve and Helen struggle to keep their love—and themselves—alive amid a sudden Shiite coup that threatens the unpopular and corrupt Saudi regime. 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. (Sept.)