City Of Gold

City of Gold by Len Deighton. Cairo 1942 – A city ruled by
Egyptian royalty occupied by the British military seething
with spies and deserters. Here in a hotbed of corruption
espionage and profiteering the war will reach a turning
point and the future of the free world will be decided.
Captain Bert Cutler late of the Glasgow police has been
brought to Egypt with one purpose: to find Rommels spy and
plug the remarkable leak of exact intelligence that is
making the Axis advance toward Cairo unstoppable. In a
heady atmosphere of social gaiety explosive politics black
marketeering and sudden violence Alice Stanhope the
beautiful young aristocrat with a well-connected mother in
Alexandria; Prince Plotr the aging Tsarist; Peggy West the
handsome British nurse awaiting her husbands return from a
distant secret mission; exquisite Zeinab el-Shazil and her
handsome brother Sayed; Solomon al Masri the wily arms
dealer; Wally Wallingford the reckless adventurer with his
Independent Desert Teams; and a host of others will be
ensnared in the tangled web of intrigue. From the formal
headquarters of British Intelligence through the ancient
streets of Cairo to bohemian soirees at the Hotel
Magnifico…from a flamboyant houseboat on the Nile to
remote desert villages and the shell-shattered wastes of
the Sahara Bert Cutler must pursue his clever and elusive
prey. Even as the odds against the Allies escalate and the
only victory possible must be snatched from the jaws of
defeat he dreams of a life with the lovely Alice keenly
aware that he himself is not what he seems. He is a man
caught in a strange twist of fate…a man playing a
brilliant charade. He is a man who has attended an inquiry
into his own death and may yet live to face a charge of
murder. Seizing a crucial moment of history and bringing
it vividly to life in all its drama irony and ambiguity
Len Deighton has created a brilliant and compelling
thriller that will grab you on the first page and hold you
spellbound to the very end.