The Grand Mirage — Darrell Delamaide

The year is 1910 and Europe's imperial powers are on the threshold of war. New oil discoveries in the Middle East make this strategic region a bigger prize than ever. Leighton, a scholar in Arabic studies and a commissioned army officer, is torn between his devotion to a culture he has grown to love and his duty as an emissary of His Majesty's government. He must also wrestle with his feelings for his former Armenian mistress when their paths cross again, rekindling the embers of their passion.

The Grand Mirage is a historical thriller that blends Wilbur Smith's sense of rugged adventure, Eric Ambler's taste for intrigue and Alan Furst's period atmosphere to transport the reader back to an exotic Orient now lost to history.