Slick!

Book excerpt: SLICK! skewers Middle East politics and American foreign policy with a barbed humor that will leave you wondering whether to laugh or cry-when you're not holding your breath. This satiric novel dissects Moq'tar, a Persian Gulf sultanate guided by a Berkeley MBA with grandiose economic plans. Moq'tar faces dangerous instability-and the United States a black eye-during a deadlocked election pitting the nation's acting CEO against his playboy brother. The ensuing power struggle leaves Bobby Gatling, a retired Special Forces officer and senior advisor to the Ministry of Security, enmeshed in a web of treachery, blackmail and hypocrisy. Bobby must cope with an alcoholic U.S. ambassador and a puzzling cultural attaché while struggling with loneliness, doubts about American intentions and his personal safety. All the while, a beautiful, tech-savvy princess with a questionable past lurks in the background.