Syria: 1970. Three years after the Six Days War. Michael Howell - utterly apolitical and genetically programmed for survival. A Levantine mongrel of Armenian, Lebanese, Greek Cypriot, Syrian and "fractionally" British blood who possessed profitable businesses throughout the Middle East and an Italian mistress who doubled as the office manager. So life was sweet for Michael Howell until one night in Damascus he discovered that his factories had become the clandestine operations base of the Palestinian Action Force - a fanatical terrorist organisation committed to the destruction of Israel - and he was caught in the middle with nowhere to run.
Author Biography
In a career spanning over sixty years, Eric Ambler wrote nineteen novels and was awarded the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award for Passage of Arms in 1960. He was married to Joan Harrison, who wrote or co-wrote many of Alfred Hitchcock's screenplays - in fact Hitchcock organized their wedding. Eric Ambler died in London in October 1998.
