Best Bent Wire

“A hand came over his mouth. A small hand. ‘Ned’s turn’ said Ishta softly.” Cairo, 1946: the city is teeming with undercover operatives as nations plot to control the Middle East oilfields in the aftermath of the Second World War. The reasons for intelligence agent Ned Best’s membership of the special unit could be expressed in three The Morse Code. He had been given to understand that his presence in Cairo was necessary to halt the rise of Communism. However, things are not what they seem as plans start to unravel for the dewy-eyed recruit and the undercover operation. Loosely based on the Bletchley Park-trained author’s experiences in North Africa and the Middle East, this is a gently comic novel of bungled intelligence, illicit love, geopolitical intrigue, military futility and musical awakening.