JOHN LATHROP

In the tradition of Graham Greene and John le Carr comes one part political thriller and one part explosive love story set against the intriguing backdrop of the sands of Saudi Arabia.

Michael Smith, at the US embassy in Cambodia, has an urgent assignment: do what it takes to help a US oil company secure its contract with the Cambodian government before upcoming elections strengthen a Chinese competitor. His affair with Zainab, the British charges wife, complicates events. Unaware of Smiths role, Zainab pushes hard for reform, convincing her candidate to tie oil concessions to clean government, and Chinese concessions to the release of a dissident monk. The ruling party works for the monks release, but insists that Zainab, a Buddhist herself, travels to the remote northern border for the handover. Smith considers a British diplomats spouse to be a protected species in Cambodia. But does she really qualify? With tension, moral complexity and an authentic feel for modern Cambodia, The End of the Monsoon is a gripping story of love and the struggle for integrity.

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 hed 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 Kemps 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. Written with compassion and a true understanding of the current politics and business world of the Middle East, The Desert Contract paints a dead-on portrait of Saudi Arabias near future and, at the same time, deftly examines what happens when passion, commitment, and loyalties collide.