A Kind of Anger by Eric Ambler - By: Richard A Stooker

Is fraud okay so long as you're defrauding bad people?

That's the message of this interesting book by one of the early masters of international intrigue.

A young woman has been the mistress of a Iraqi political refugee who maintains files on both his friends and enemies back home. After all, friends can easily become enemies, and enemies can easily become friends.

The contents of these files aren't clear. The man was in charge of internal security, so there's an implication that they contain lots of juicy dirt on corruption and their private lives. But an oil consortium is interested in them as well.

And there's also the possibility of illegal shootings and torture. Iraq was not warm cozy place even before Sadaam Hussein came to power.

However, he's killed by Kurds (he's also a Kurd), who are painted by Ambler as particularly ruthless. That's interesting now, because they're out best allies in Iraq.

Anyway, the young woman escapes and is in hiding. She has the files, and wants to sell them to the highest bidders.

She's found by a young journalist who is still on the verge of committing suicide. Together he finds a purpose in living, because he loves her, and he gives her a higher meaning than simply money.

It's hard not to root for them, especially considering that they're trying to defraud some awful people.

However, they're taking a lot of risk selling even one copy of the documents -- and they've got two, to sell to two different buyers who of course are in conflict with each other.

What's interesting is that this basic arrangement was organized by the original Iraqi man, who's quite comfortable with this deceit and fraud. He knew he was in danger, and wanted her to have a lot of money when he was gone.

The last third of the book contains more action and suspense than most Ambler novels.

It's also by implication a deep look into how differently people from different cultures view things, which of course has modern implications. How many of our so-called allies in Iraq are as flagrantly amoral and capable of deceit and manipulation and betrayal?

There's also an implication that the most sophisticated people in the world have few if any morals. These two people seem to love each other, but it's them against the world.

In a world run by moral ambiguity, the two lovers at least have found love with each other, and get away with a fair amount of money as well.

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