Layover in Dubai

The author of The Arms Maker of Berlin and The Prisoner of Guantánamo ('Worthy of sharing shelf space with the novels of John le Carré and Ken Follett' – USA Today) gives us a new thriller as dazzling as its setting.

Corporate auditor Sam Keller, careful to a fault, has decided to live it up for a change. And what better spot for business-class hedonism than the boomtown of Dubai, where resort islands materialize from open ocean, fortunes are made overnight, and skiers crisscross the snowy slopes of a shopping mall.

But when a colleague is murdered during a night on the town, Sam soon finds himself waist-deep in a bewildering, lethal mix of mobsters, prostitutes, and crooked cops.

Offering a chancy way out is Anwar Sharaf, the unlikeliest of detectives. A former pearl diver and gold smuggler with an undignified demeanor, Sharaf is sometimes as baffled as Sam by the changes to his homeland. But he knows where the levers of power reside. And as the unlikely duo work their way toward the heart of the case, each man must confront the darkest forces threatening Dubai from within.

A stunning portrait of a world where the old and new continually collide, and Dan Fesperman's most suspenseful novel yet.