{"id":38,"date":"2014-11-22T01:04:47","date_gmt":"2014-11-22T01:04:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidbalderstone.com\/?page_id=38"},"modified":"2015-05-22T01:08:19","modified_gmt":"2015-05-22T01:08:19","slug":"baghdad-chameleon","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.davidbalderstone.com\/?page_id=38","title":{"rendered":"The Baghdad Chameleon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.davidbalderstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/The-Baghdad-Chameleon.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-39\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.davidbalderstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/The-Baghdad-Chameleon.jpg?resize=150%2C206\" alt=\"The Baghdad Chameleon\" width=\"150\" height=\"206\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Book Description<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For Scot Wallace, there seems no end to the demands and threats of a wild card in Saddam Hussein\u2019s leadership pack. Even the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq provides no respite for Wallace, a Cyprus-based import-export trader. Against all odds, the wild card \u2013 a senior Iraqi bureaucrat \u2013 survives purges by the Americans and the new Iraqi administration. Despite international sanctions, Wallace has traded with the Iraqi government through contacts within Baghdad\u2019s Trade Department. Then, out of the blue, he\u2019s contacted by Baghdad\u2019s feared and dreaded Interior Ministry. Against better judgment he meets the wild card, The Baghdad Chameleon, and problems begin.<br \/>\nWallace is further entwined into this Levantine web of intrigue when the Iraqi puts him in touch with Boris, a Russian living in the Cypriot port city of Limassol. The Russian could be of help, the Iraqi declares. With most of Saddam\u2019s senior officials captured, or dead, how does this Iraqi survive?<br \/>\nTo help get an answer, the novel introduces a dubious Syrian businessman, an alluring East European woman, a former British soldier sacked for being gay, and the Russian who is said to manage the finances of some Moscow oligarchs.<br \/>\nBut truth is elusive in the Middle East, where half-truth and gossip often pass for fact.<br \/>\nWith America and its allies tied down in Afghanistan and about to invade Iraq, tragedy, loneliness and greed conspire to lure Wallace into the Iraqi\u2019s trap. It becomes his own Middle East quagmire.<br \/>\nThe Baghdad Chameleon is set in Cyprus, Syria, Iraq and Australia during the last months of Saddam Hussein\u2019s regime and the emergence of an American-backed government in Iraq. It looks at how individuals \u2013 and nations \u2013 become trapped in the Middle East and explores the case that all nations \u2013 Western and emerging \u2013 can be accused of abusing human rights.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Extracts from reviews of the paperback edition:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u2018The Baghdad Chameleon (Poppy Press, 273pp, $27.99) is the second novel by another journalist, The Age\u2019s former Middle East correspondent, David Balderstone. Like its predecessor A Road from Damascus, this adventure is centred in the Middle East and sows a triangle of intrigue between Cyprus, Syria and Iraq\u2026..The Baghdad Chameleon is an enjoyable instance of the recrudescence of the espionage thriller, which suffered more than most genres (with the exception perhaps of social realism) from the death of communism. There\u2019s little idealism here; only a variety of characters with elastic ethical thresholds playing the angles. But it\u2019s interesting to follow Wallace to these places as the bodies start to accumulate. Balderstone shows an understanding of the geopolitics of the region. When our Middle Eastern news diet is primarily pictures of violence and Islamic extremism, The Baghdad Chameleon provides the counter-image of complex interrelated cultures united by the pragmatism of doing deals. This evocation of a region, so easily characterised by our ignorance of it, makes it a better than average read.\u2019<br \/>\n&#8211; <em>The Australian Review<\/em> November 24-25, 2012 &#8211; New Australian Fiction: Ed Wright<\/p>\n<p>\u2018This action packed novel has Scot Wallace, a Lemesos (Limassol) trader, as its protagonist. It not only takes you to the Lemesos, Larnaca, and the mountain village of Kakopetria, but also to Syria, Iraq and Australia, where there is plenty of intrigue and more than a little \u201clove interest\u201d\u2026\u2026Australian author David Balderstone has certainly penned a gripping novel that will keep you in suspense until its final pages.\u2019<br \/>\n&#8211;<em>Sunjet<\/em>, the in-flight magazine of Cyprus Airways<\/p>\n<p><strong>Buy this book from<\/strong>\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/David-Balderstone\/e\/B0064I1QQE\">http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/David-Balderstone\/e\/B0064I1QQE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Book Description For Scot Wallace, there seems no end to the demands and threats of a wild card in Saddam Hussein\u2019s leadership pack. Even the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq provides no respite for Wallace, a Cyprus-based import-export trader. Against all odds, the wild card \u2013 a senior Iraqi bureaucrat \u2013 survives purges by the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":24,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-38","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Baghdad Chameleon - David Balderstone<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.davidbalderstone.com\/?page_id=38\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Baghdad Chameleon - David Balderstone\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Book Description For Scot Wallace, there seems no end to the demands and threats of a wild card in Saddam Hussein\u2019s leadership pack. Even the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq provides no respite for Wallace, a Cyprus-based import-export trader. Against all odds, the wild card \u2013 a senior Iraqi bureaucrat \u2013 survives purges by the [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.davidbalderstone.com\/?page_id=38\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"David Balderstone\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-05-22T01:08:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.davidbalderstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/The-Baghdad-Chameleon.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.davidbalderstone.com\\\/?page_id=38\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.davidbalderstone.com\\\/?page_id=38\",\"name\":\"The Baghdad Chameleon - David Balderstone\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.davidbalderstone.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.davidbalderstone.com\\\/?page_id=38#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.davidbalderstone.com\\\/?page_id=38#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.davidbalderstone.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/The-Baghdad-Chameleon.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-11-22T01:04:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-05-22T01:08:19+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.davidbalderstone.com\\\/?page_id=38#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.davidbalderstone.com\\\/?page_id=38\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.davidbalderstone.com\\\/?page_id=38#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.davidbalderstone.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/The-Baghdad-Chameleon.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.davidbalderstone.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/The-Baghdad-Chameleon.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.davidbalderstone.com\\\/?page_id=38#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.davidbalderstone.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Books\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.davidbalderstone.com\\\/?page_id=24\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"The Baghdad Chameleon\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.davidbalderstone.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.davidbalderstone.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"David Balderstone\",\"description\":\"Journalist and author\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.davidbalderstone.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Baghdad Chameleon - David Balderstone","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.davidbalderstone.com\/?page_id=38","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Baghdad Chameleon - David Balderstone","og_description":"Book Description For Scot Wallace, there seems no end to the demands and threats of a wild card in Saddam Hussein\u2019s leadership pack. 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