Set in 1942, Baron's fast-paced second thriller/mystery featuring Lily Sampson (after 2002's A Fly Has a Hundred Eyes
) finds the attractive archeologist working in Morocco, where her mentor, Prof. Hammond Drury, gets her involved with the clandestine activities of William "Wild Bill" Donovan, the real-life founder of the OSS. Lily and Hammond take cover jobs as part of the American legation in Tangier, while coded messages whiz back and forth in preparation for an Allied surprise offensive against Rommel. Foreign agents of several countries cast an eye on Lily, and two of her friends meet violent ends in a whodunit subplot that borders on the simplistic. Baron may not meld political treachery, murder and historical detail as seamlessly as, say, Michael Pearce in his Egyptian historicals (Death of an Effendi
), but the issues she raises about Western versus Islamic cultural values couldn't be more timely. (May)
