THE FLYING CAMEL

by Amos Aricha ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 22, 1986

Slow, muddled going here: a drawn-out thriller about a CIA hit man's search for his long-lost father. Daniel Kottler may seem like your ordinary everyday Arab-affairs expert who works for an international law firm and lives with his Aunt Bertha in Brooklyn, but beneath that drab exterior beats the heart of ""Washington's number-one hit man in the Mideast."" Actually, he'd like to retire, but his CIA bosses want one more kill--the target is nefarious terrorist Rif'at Shishakali, strongly suspected of having masterminded the bloody 1983 suicide attack on Marine headquarters in Beirut. Kottler finally agrees to the job, not only because the ruthless spooks are threatening to turn his ethereal girlfriend, Ariadne, into a high-priced call girl, but because the hit is to take place in Saudi Arabia. You see, back in the early 50's, Israeli intelligence operative Yosef Dur abandoned his pregnant American wife to go off on a mission from which he never returned--and Kottler is convinced that Sheikh Ibn Aziz, of Riyadh, is indeed his long-lost father, under deep cover as an Israeli mole. Yup, it's true. Aziz/ Dur admits his paternity in a melodramatic scene that resembles nothing so much as a couple of dogs meeting on a street corner (""In that mute confrontation, we groped inwardly toward one another, sniffing each other out like beasts that recognize their own kind through a primordial sense""), and even saves the day for Kottler by sensing a trap, and dispatching Shishakali himself. Aricha (coauthor of Phoenix, 1979) is an Israeli ex-cop who writes with police-report finesse and plots with grand-opera subtlety. This is a very dreary dromedary, indeed.

Pub Date: Jan. 22, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1986

Categories: FICTION