Death in the Empty Quarter

Oil business can be a cutthroat; No one knows that better than Bert Franks. A consultant and plenipotentiary for Vermilion Oil Company (a Houston firm owned by his sister and brother-in-law), he specializes in navigating the political minefields of Yemen, where Vermilion owns a profitable oilfield concession. Bert spends his days meeting and socializing with government officials, even handling major negotiations—anything necessary to smooth the way for Vermilion's interests. When a minor contractual dispute spirals out of control, Bert finds himself at the center of a storm of corporate cupidity, government corruption, a muckraking reporter, political controversy...and murder. His brother-in-law is dead, his girlfriend has vanished, Vermilion is on the brink of bankruptcy—and suddenly he's persona non grata in a country he's adopted as his own. And the whole time, he never suspects that the real danger to all he cares for lies not in the Yemen desert, but much, much closer to home...