The Grand Mirage

In the early 1900s, scholar and Orientalist Lord Richard Leighton is enlisted by the British government to travel to the Ottoman Empire and investigate Germany%E2%80%99s involvement in the construction of a railroad. Almost immediately, Leighton%E2%80%94who partners with American spy William Morrison%E2%80%94is caught between a number of factions: Germans intent on preserving the secret military purpose of the railroad; bankers who want the railroad to bring trade to the region; the Turks running the Ottoman Empire; Arabs who want independence from the Ottomans; and the Armenians who have been subjugated by the Turks. Delamaide provides a fascinating look at a little-examined period: the Great Game period before WWI. Leighton and Morrison are unlikely heroes (neither is particularly physically imposing or possessed of military prowess), and this makes them all the more likable. However, the novel%E2%80%99s plot is needlessly complicated, and the twists and turns sometimes make very little sense. Readers will find this interesting, but not particularly memorable.