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The drums of war beat amid global economic ruin. The skies, not the trenches, will decide the survivors. Rich men marshal their resources as all sides race to acquire 100-octane aviation gasoline, an unproven, unstable witches' brew that could fuel the fastest attack aircraft. In a brutal maze of corporate treason, personal blackmail, and imperfect heroism, a young, brilliant petroleum engineer battling the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma may hold the key.Eight years ago in Jerusalem, schoolgirl Saba Hassouneh survived the murder of her family. Sentenced to the barbaric refugee camps, Saba is freed by a legendary Bedouin freedom-fighter. She embraces his life of a bandit/rebel, evolving into a fearsome Arab nationalist femme de guerre hunted by the colonial powers and religious mullahs.



About the Author

Charlie Newton

My bio according to editor and pal, Easy Ed Stackler: A thumbnail on the Chicago-born author reads like that of one of his characters - a fellow who has seen a bit more reality than is often healthy but come away with P. J. O'Rourke's sense of humor instead of angst and Hunter Thompson's pathology sans the .44 magnum. Charlie's early career leaned toward pirate-adventurer rather than responsible citizen, living and working in exotic, often-unhealthy places, doing some of the devil's business and some of the king's. The semi-adult epiphany arrived with his thirtieth birthday. Charlie Newton has built successful bars/restaurants and resort apartments, raced thoroughbreds that weren't quite so successful, and brokered television and film in the Middle East to gentlemen who often weren't. Generally speaking, he's lived a life in the borderlands (literal and figurative) where stories like TRAITOR'S GATE, START SHOOTING and CALUMET CITY happen. And survived to enjoy it. Catchy, huh? Allow me to add: I wasn't a defrocked policeman, soldier, or mercenary or any of the other tough-guy labels occasionally attached to me. I wasn't an altar boy either. Well actually I was, but it didn't work out. And while I readily admit that I use where I've been and who I know to write these novels, no permission based upon same is required. I want to write great stories about people and conditions that matter to me, and if I ever do it will be because I'm a dedicated fellow with a typewriter, not an aging action figure. As they say in Afrika, just another guy on the train. A final note on voice and POV: As Ed-the-editor mentioned, the voice is a gumbo of my early heroes - Raymond Chandler (shock) , P .J. O'Rourke, and Hunter Thompson: Chandler for his language; O'Rourke for his construction, and Thompson for his freedom. To date I think I've given away fifty copies of Fear And Loathing. Years later I stumbled across Thomas Harris and his stunning simplicity, then Pete Dexter and his stunning everything. POV? I'm a big fan of the blues and thoroughbred racing. Spent the Gerber years in Chicago watching the stars of Chess Records play Maxwell Street and my horses finish poorly at Arlington and Sportsman's. Those places were filled with noir and teenage danger, but more importantly they were inclusive when the rest of the world seemed otherwise. So there it is, the wonder of me. In closing, possibly there is one thing that's kind of different about my novels - if I tell you through a character that a street corner in Saigon, or Beirut, or the Four Corners is X, then I've been there. I probably didn't do what the character did, but I walked in his or her steps. Any of you who read TRAITOR'S GATE, START SHOOTING, CALUMET CITY or the novels that I sincerely hope will follow, your opinions/observations matter.



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