Doom's Caravan

by Geoffrey Household

A chilling story of counter-espionage set in the Lebanon during the Second World War.

Please note: This is a vintage recording. The audio quality may not be up to modern day standards.

©1971 Geoffrey Household (P)2010 RNIB

Audible Audio

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.