The Bank of Fear — David Ignatius

Combining the sly wit of a Swiss bank caper with the horrifying account of a megalomaniacal political regime, this novel features a modern Iraqi woman who works in London as a computer specialist for an Arab conglomerate. Her innocent discovery of a questionable computer file at the time when the Iraqi head of state is assassinated leaves her exposed to relentless attack not only from Iraqi agents but from Israeli and American ones as well. A smitten freelance industrial spy tries to help her out-at least until his father, a CIA operative, interferes. Against a backdrop of true events, documentary realism in the torture scenes, and computer strategies, the couple ping-pongs between frisky romance and dire straits.