Review: An Arabian Tale of Intrigue
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 15, 2013
The book is based on events that occurred in the early eighties, 1983 to be precise. On the Gulf is certainly a thriller but more of the psychological kind. The book begins with a realistic description of Fariq, an imaginary country in the Gulf, that is struggling to reconcile traditional tribal attitudes with development brought on by black gold. The narration starts off with an unusual meeting between the hero, Kevin Bone and the brother of the ruler, Rashid Sheikh.Both appear to be normal, reasonable characters but there is more to them than meets the eye. Rashid is the invisible hand that guides many Fariqi men and women and turns some loyalists into antagonists. Bone, an engineer with a past, plays a major role as the story progresses.The deceptive calm on the surface explodes into a gruesome battle for power and control that includes a bomb attack, a royal kidnapping, a revolutionary coup attempt and murder. The British and American expatriates are both innocent targets and game manipulators. The book is a non judgmental expose on the mindsets of locals and foreigners alike.On The Gulf is an intriguing story that has a good flow. It is not a thriller that grabs you from the word `go' but gradually pulls you along for a bumpy ride. I like the layers added  to characters, settings and places. On the other hand, I felt a certain emotional distance from both the main players such as Bone, Foster, Polly and Hamad and the secondary ones such as Badria, Adiba or Wisdom. I did not care for any of them after a certain point of time.If you can overlook the casual and callous attitude of the subjects, especially the women, when faced with unique circumstances, this book by Desmond Cory makes it to the TBR list.