They Came to Baghdad

Victoria Jones is an impulsive young London typist with a thirst for adventure and a habit of losing jobs. When a charming stranger she meets in the park mentions he is bound for Baghdad, she resolves on a whim to follow him halfway across the world. Talking her way onto an archaeological expedition and into a faded hotel, she lands in a city humming with rumour: the great powers are about to convene a secret summit there, and a shadowy organisation is determined to wreck it. Adventure finds her sooner than she expects when a wounded man stumbles into her room and dies, leaving behind only a handful of cryptic words. What begins as a romantic escapade pulls Victoria into a web of agents, couriers, and impostors, where a stitched scarf, a missing financial witness, and a charismatic explorer all turn out to matter. Set against the bazaars of Baghdad, the river at Basra, and a dusty dig in the desert, the story trades the locked-room puzzle for pursuit, disguise, and quick thinking under pressure. The intelligence man Dakin watches the city, the archaeologists go about their work, and an elusive American secretary holds a piece of the truth that could undo everything. Victoria must decide whom to trust as she stumbles from one peril to the next, her wit and nerve tested far beyond anything her old typing desk demanded. The result is a brisk Cold War chase carried by a heroine who is in well over her head.