In 1941, a hand grenade explodes in a Cairo bar, taking the life of Stern, a petty gunrunner and morphine addict. His death could easily go unnoticed as Rommel's tanks charge through the desert in an attempt to open the Middle East to Hitler's forces. Yet the mystery behind Stern's death is a top priority for intelligence experts. Master spies from three countries converge on Joe O'Sullivan Beare, who is closer to Stern than anyone, in an effort to unravel the disturbing puzzle. The search for the truth about Stern leads O'Sullivan Beare through the slums of Cairo to a decaying former brothel called the Hotel Babylon.
Edward Whittemore Books
Edward Whittemore's fiction is shaped by his remarkable career as a Marine officer and a CIA operative across the Far East, Europe, and the Middle East. This background, combined with experiences managing a newspaper and working in narcotics control, lent his narratives a unique, worldly perspective. He delved into complex themes, often situated in international settings, drawing directly from his insights into espionage and global affairs. Whittemore's distinctive literary voice captures the intricacies of human nature against a backdrop of geopolitical landscapes.






On a winter's day, some twenty years after the end of the Second World War, a huge, smiling fat man wearing a black bowler hat and a military greatcoat and known as Geraty walked into a bar in the Bronx bearing his name and picked the pocket of a young man named Quin, thereby setting in motion a series of events that was to culminate in the largest funeral procession held in Asia since the thirteenth century.
Jericho Mosaic
- 374 pages
- 14 hours of reading
This novel about the rivalries and crosscurrents of the Middle East focuses on a Jewish double-agent who has become a trusted adviser to Syria's military leaders.
Tales of a blind man, written down by an imbecile. Such is the genesis of the Bible in this raucous, unsettling account of recent and not-so-recent history with its richly entwined odysseys.

