David Balderstone

The Baghdad Chameleon David Balderstone

Beginning in the last year of Saddam Hussein's rule over Iraq, this novel is set in Cyprus, Syria, Iraq, and briefly Australia. For Scot Wallace, there seems no end to the demands and threats of a wild card in Saddam Hussein's leadership pack. Even the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq provides no respite for Wallace, a Cyprus-based import-export trader. Against all odds, the wild card - a senior Iraqi bureaucrat - survives purges by the Americans and the new Iraqi administration. Despite international sanctions, Wallace has traded with the Iraqi government through contacts within Baghdad's Trade Department. Then, out of the blue, he's contacted by Baghdad's feared and dreaded Interior Ministry. Against better judgment he meets the wild card, The Baghdad Chameleon, and problems begin.