Sandstorm

B.J. Busch is Associate Librarian (Access and Information Services) at
the University of Alberta.

Sandstorm is another tightly-woven, action-packed delight from
award-winning author Laurence Gough. A tale of greed, intrigue,
betrayal, and revenge, it begins with the mysterious Mr. Sandstorm
opening a numbered account in Zurich. The scene shifts from Cairo, to
Colombia, to London, and back to Cairo, as the reader is introduced to
an odd but colorful assortment of characters: Charlie McPhee, the
down-and-out millionaire who left his wife and daughter back in Beverly
Hills and now works as a sleazy puppeteer in Cairo’s cheap night
clubs; Jack Downey, a CIA wheeler-dealer; Sweets and Mungo, CIA
mercenaries; Jennifer, an antique dealer in quest of information about
her father’s disappearance in Libya years ago. These unlikely partners
are pulled together in a complex game plan, the ultimate objective of
which is known to only one of them. In the end, an actual desert
sandstorm has a dramatic impact on the plan’s outcome.

Gough is a miser with words, but he picks the right words and packs
tomes of meaning into his selections. He captures the essence of
characters through descriptions of physical traits, and then begins to
identify them by these traits; a man wearing glasses is called
“Glasses” every time he appears (“Glasses placed the palm of his
hand against Charlie’s chest”). In another instance, a man with a
crewcut is referred to as “Haircut” (“The door opened and Haircut
came into the room”).

Humor abounds, particularly in dialogue between Mungo and Sweets that
is often stylistically reminiscent of novelist Robert B. Parker’s
Hawk. Gough has a way of making an unlikely plot believable, and his
surprise ending will satisfy everyone.