‘Stirring period piece set in the anxious months before the outbreak of the First World War’ Sunday Times With the shadow of the First World War looming ever closer, Britain is quietly relieved when Turkish bandits hold to ransom engineers working on a railway that threatened its oil interests in the Persian Gulf. Feigning help, the Foreign Office sends the notorious Lady Kelso, once the lover of the bandit’s chief, with members of the fledgling Secret Service Bureau to serve as 'diplomatic protection'. Ambush, betrayal, murder and bombardment all ensue as there are others – German, Turkish and French – all honourably putting their own country's interests first.