Published 20 November 2022 by New Century Publishing.
From the cover of the book:
Kuwait 1960. With Soviet backing Iraq plans to invade.Gordon Carlisle lives in the expat community of Ahmadi with little to worry about other than when to next don his dinner jacket.
When enlisted by an MI6 agent everything changes.
Even marriage to his beautiful new wife Anita breaks down as he becomes a suspect in a chain of deaths in the Protectorate.
Ian Fleming’s time in Kuwait is recorded at first hand as Britain prepares to meet the Iraqi forces head on with Operation Vantage.
Our Man In Kuwait is a colonial-era thriller set against the background of big power conflict. The ultimate timepiece tinderbox of sun, sex and spies.
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Kuwait, 1960. With the rumoured threat of a Soviet-backed Iraqi invasion on the horizon, the expat community of Ahmadi is starting to feel unsettled, although business is mostly as usual. Gordon Carlisle, newly married and working for the preventative medicine division at Southwell Hospital, normally has little to concern him beyond his routine work, visits to the Hubara Club, and the busy round of engagements among his social set. However, his involvement in an investigation into a recent anthrax outbreak has earned him some renown, the nickname 'James Bond of the Desert', and the unwelcome interest of the security services.
Gordon is contacted by an MI6 agent who encourages him to gather information about those who might be sympathetic to the Iraqi cause. Although he is reluctant, he can hardly refuse, and Gordon, being Gordon, he tries to do his best to complete his task. Unfortunately, the consequences of this send his life spinning out of control. His recent marriage after years of singledom to a beautiful, younger woman has already made him the subject of gossip in this close community, and he is now the target of rumours connected to the mentally fragile wife of one of his old friends too. His relationship with Anita is heading for the rocks, as he becomes increasingly bewildered by her suspicious behaviour, and her coolness towards him - and then, to top it all, he finds himself implicated in a brutal murder. It is not the best time to be asked by the powers that be to entertain the famous Bond author himself, naval intelligence officer, Ian Fleming... but perhaps this might be a silver lining to the cloud that is hanging over him?
I was not really sure what to expect of this book. The title suggests a nod to Graham Greene's humorous espionage thriller, Our Man in Havana, but the blurb promises a hard-edged colonial thriller, with an injection of Cold War spy shenanigans. Which would it prove to be? Well, in fact this is a glorious mix of both - an accomplished espionage thriller that thrums with the authenticity of an expat community in the dying days of colonialism, and one which has clever little touches of tongue in cheek sardonic humour among its twisty plotlines. Burfitt-Dons uses her experience as a child growing up in Kuwait in the uncertain era in which story is set, and the real-life friendship that existed between her own father and Ian Fleming, to craft a delicious mix of fact and fiction that holds you fast all the way to a beautifully contrived climax.
Nothing about this time and place escapes Burfitt-Dons' attention, from the over-arching impact of political unrest; religious division; territorial claims; the fear of insurgency; the rival interests of multiple intelligence agencies; and the complexities of divided loyalties. In addition, she immerses you in the nitty-gritty of the domestic arrangements of this community, with their preoccupations with money, status, appearance, and the private lives of their friends and neighbours, bringing in a compelling human element. You find yourself becoming equally caught up in the thriller elements of the story, as you do in the gossip and speculation among the ex-pat community members, and I loved how Burfitt-Dons uses the themes of secrets and betrayal throughout. Everything blends together in a very entertaining whole, and the inclusion of Fleming's visit to advance the plot is genius.
Gordon is an unlikely hero in this story, with his innate decency and unusual menagerie of creatures, but I became really fond of him as he naively entangles himself in a series of ever more dangerous situations, while trying to do the right thing. I have my fingers crossed that Burfitt-Dons decides to write a sequel featuring dear old Gordon, because I really want to follow more of his brand of adventures. I am seriously impressed with this mix of baking sun, sex and spies!
Our Man in Kuwait is available to buy now in hardcover, paperback and ebook.
Thank you to Louise Burfitt-Dons for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the author:
The plot was inspired by certain incidents that took place during 1960 when the expat community was living under threat of invasion by neighbouring Iraq. That same year author and Naval Intelligence freelancer Ian Fleming visited the country and closely befriended her father Ian Byres, the Preventative Health Officer for Kuwait Oil Company. Louise was seven. She remembers vividly the men's shared interest in her father's personal zoo and the ensuing contest between a viper and scorpion on their lounge carpet. The two "Ian"s then went out on one of her father's hawking expeditions into the desert which features in the story.
Other elements of which she became aware, such as the British double-agent Kim Philby's tour of the Gulf States prior to his defection to the Soviet Union in 1963, helped shape some of the other major characters, Louise's Kuwaiti experience and research features in her earlier books. In The Missing Activist, a private investigator goes undercover to learn about Jihadi brides and the sequel The Killing of the Cherrywood MP sees her tackling the counter reaction to Islamic extremism by the Far Right. In The Secret War she probes links between the Chinese Communist Party and UK universities.
Louise has also TV thrillers for the Lifetime TV network.
Thanks for the blog tour support x
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