Doom's Caravan

by Geoffrey Household

The disappearance of a British intelligence agent at the height of World War II sparks a desperate manhunt through the treacherous shadows of a battle-scarred Middle East Oliver Enwin was a valuable member of the British intelligence community in the Middle East in those dark days at the onset of the Second World War. Talented enough and devious enough to make his mark, he rose to the rank of assistant defense security officer at Nazareth by 1941, entrusted with the choosing, running, and support of local assets. Then he vanished without a trace, leaving fear and turmoil in his wake and scores of unanswered questions. In a tightly closed desert world on the brink of chaos—an essential playing piece in the complex wartime strategies of Allies, Arabs, and Nazis—determining the motives and whereabouts of a British agent gone rogue and potentially traitorous might be the most impossible assignment of the entire Middle Eastern conflict . . . and quite possibly the most important. In the vein of works by John le Carré and Len Deighton, Doom’s Caravan is a masterful, ever-twisting tale of wartime espionage unfolding on a vivid and blood-stained canvas. Gripping, electrifying, evocative, and surprising at every turn, this is the work of a true twentieth-century master.

233 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

British author of mostly thrillers, though among 37 books he also published children's fiction. Household's flight-and-chase novels, which show the influence of John Buchan, were often narrated in the first person by a gentleman-adventurer. Among his best-know works is' Rogue Male' (1939), a suggestive story of a hunter who becomes the hunted, in 1941 filmed by Fritz Lang as 'Man Hunt'. Household's fast-paced story foreshadowed such international bestsellers as Richard Condon's thriller 'The Manchurian Candidate' (1959), Frederick Forsyth's 'The Day of the Jackal' (1971), and Ken Follett's 'Eye of the Needle' (1978) .

In 1922 Household received his B.A. in English from Magdalen College, Oxford, and between 1922 and 1935 worked in commerce abroad, moving to the US in 1929. During World War II, Household served in the Intelligence Corps in Romania and the Middle East. After the War he lived the life of a country gentleman and wrote. In his later years, he lived in Charlton, near Banbury, Oxfordshire, and died in Wardington.

Household also published an autobiography, 'Against the Wind' (1958), and several collections of short stories, which he himself considered his best work.

Reviews

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good but complicated

This WWII story set in the middle east is complex but full of excitement, romance, and treachery. This bit of the world in all its complicated glory presents the backdrop for an important part of history.

[Andy Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frustrating book. Really a two but I like the atmosphere and style but the plot is both hard to follow and very unsuspenseful. Two British secret agents. One - an Arab expert who can pass for Arab has gone rogue but is brought back into the fold by a senior military intelligence officer when tracked to the isolated home of a mother and daughter (he's inove with the daughter. After that ai don't know. They work out that there are some bad guys. One is a connection of the mother too. The mother and senior officer allow themselves to be captured before a German sponsored uprisong.with a view to blowing the badies up. They do that.