DUBAI

Past master (The Green Berets, The French Connection) of both exposing and exploiting a situation at the same time, Moore focuses here on recent events in the whirlpool of Middle Eastern politics, money and intrigue. Dubai is a small state on the Trucial Coast of the Persian Gulf. His American hero, Fitz Lodd, is drawn to this emerging nation after being forced into early retirement from the Army for anti-Semitic remarks mistakenly attributed to him. It is just these remarks, however, in addition to his background as military ""advisor"" and intelligence officer which make straight his way with the Arab sheiks and businessmen who are into gold trafficking (in India), oil development (in the Gulf), and investment banking. Lodd gets a piece of all the action in return for his assistance on the smuggling side and the exertion of his knowledge and influence with American investors in oil. He and his multifarious partners, however large their stakes, are no match for the big powers--Iran, the British and the ubiquitous CIA. Fitz's hopes for an ambassadorship to the area are squashed but he does manage to win the girl, an amalgam of East and West, beauty and brains, a fantasy creature who doesn't know the meaning of sexual reluctance. The prose is truly deadening but it's difficult to see how any spark could be ignited under the sheer weight of Moore's factual accumulation. There is the telling detail and the meaningless detail. Can it make any difference if the hero turned left or turned right on any given comer in Teheran?