This is a book of two stories--Nora's and Lurie's.  Both stories are interesting as Nora is shown as a farm wife dealing with a drought and a husband and sons that have gone missing.  Lurie was an outlaw turned cameleer.  Based on the blurb for the book, I expected something totally different.  Through the different timelines and stories, I kept wondering when do Nora and Lurie meet.  When they finally do, I was disappointed.  However the ending was unexpected and kept with the story.  After I finished the book I realized how the blurb could have different meanings and it was not wrong.  Just not the meaning I first put on it or how I wanted the story to go.  But it is a compelling read and keeps you hooked.

I read this book awhile back, not sure why I never wrote a review..This is a story about a family who all have different lives,  Grace, is an archaeologist, her daughter Maggie is a hydrologist, husband Mark is a retired CIA agent and their son Jeff is a newscaster for the BBC. Maggie is kidnapped and Grace rescues her only to be on the run from some not so very nice characters. Mark and Jeff travel to the Middle East to rescue them and there the adventure begins for the whole family.

This tale is full of family values, which to me is important in a story. This is a family that is very close to each other. Grace is middle aged but still yearning for adventure, her husband is perfectly happy to stay at home. Maggie is young and idealistic and has not yet fully understood her vulnerability to life's dangers. The author skillfully weaves suspense, intrigue and very strong women in the lead roles. The descriptions of the Middle East are so real that you almost feel like you are there. The dangers abound, will Grace and Maggie get rescued in time?? You will have to read the book to find out. I look forward to reading and reviewing The Brother's Keepers, the next book in the series from this wonderful storyteller!

Overall 3.5 stars, Borrow it

Camels. LOL. A do have a funny sort of related story of camels. It involves their breath.  One of my first full time out of college jobs was a receptionist for a now defunct telephone communications company that was run (with a lot of illegal stuff going on) by a bunch of people from the Middle East. One of these persons I still have contact with.  He is a total sweet heart and he means a lot to me. What does this have to do with camels? If I remember correctly, his family is Iranian. And for some reason way back then, he wanted me to call him Camel Breath. LOL. To this day I will refer to him as Camel Breath.  This issue is one I recently got when it was available for free. I wanted to do this one as I recently had contact with my friend through linked in.  

The pictures are somewhat pixelated. A couple of facts are repeated unneccesarily. The book ends a bit abrubtly. But that’s not a biggy.  Pretty strong on facts but the pictures are pixelated and not that pretty or nice.

Did you know?

Camels have a population of 17 million camels worldwide.

Camels are not strictly desert animals

A camels hump does not store water, it stores fat (I did not know this!)

Camels can drink up to 40 gallons of water at once.

Camels require 22-44 pounds of fresh food daily.

Google Plus: Evidence is mounting against camels as leading suspects in a deadly mystery that's claimed more than 100 lives in the Middle East.

The biological supervillain is the virus causing MERS-coV, short for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, a type of coronavirus.

Since the first documented cases in spring 2012, MERS has sickened at least 339 people in Saudi Arabia alone and killed nearly a third of them, according to the country's Ministry of Health.

A recent surge in reported cases -- including 26 new ones this past weekend -- has fanned concern the outbreak might be shifting into a more dangerous phase.

 Saudi officials see spike in MERS virus

With any newly recognized virus, disease detectives start with a few key questions. What kind of illness does it cause? How is it spread? And where does it come from?

 Killer coronavirus in the Middle East WHO tracks new coronavirus to Middle East Health workers infected with coronavirus

With regard to that last question, a new paper leaves little doubt that at least one answer is camels.

Researchers from Columbia University, King Saud University and the New York-based EcoHealth Alliance managed to isolate live MERS virus from two single-humped camels, known as dromedaries.

Should I be concerned about new virus?

A genetic analysis found numerous substrains in the camel viruses, including one that perfectly matches a substrain isolated from a human patient. The findings are published in mBio, the open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

The attention on camels isn't new; in February, the same group published a finding that nearly three-quarters of camels in Saudi Arabia tested positive for past exposure to the MERS coronavirus.

The new paper still leaves many questions unanswered: For example, what other animals might harbor the virus? Could it be bats, as some have suggested?

"There might be another animal, but we don't know," says Dr. Ian Lipkin, who organized the research as director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health. "We need more in terms of surveillance."

Does the virus make camels sick? Researchers don't know, says Peter Daszak, another study author and president of the EcoHealth Alliance, which researches links between animal health and human disease.

Perhaps most urgent: Has something recently changed to make MERS-coV more dangerous?

Here, some of the evidence is reassuring. Any avid mystery reader knows that a watchdog who doesn't bark can be an important clue. With MERS, there is a lack of alarm bells from the laboratory; so far there is no evidence that the virus is changing to attack people more aggressively or to spread more easily.

There isn't enough evidence to draw a firm conclusion, says Dr. Mark Denison, a leading expert on coronaviruses and a professor of pediatrics at Vanderbilt University. It also remains to be seen whether humans are being infected by more than one of the substrains found in camels. "There's a lot more work that would need to be done" to prove it, he says.

Those who study MERS-coV say it's crucial to pin down just how the virus is transmitted.

"We need to know what people are most at risk," Daszak says. "We don't know if they're involved in camel racing, camel breeding, camel slaughter -- that's really critical right now."

Lipkin says the virus likely spreads in a variety of ways, but he'd like to see more aggressive steps taken to prevent the possibility of people being infected by eating camel meat or drinking raw, unpasteurized camel milk -- both of which are common in Saudi Arabia.

He says the Saudis will face special concerns again this fall when millions descend on the holy cities of Mecca and Medina for the Hajj pilgrimage. As part of the ritual, animals are sacrificed, and their meat shipped all over the world to help feed the hungry.

Saudis: More deaths from respiratory syndrome

"The butchery will begin in three or four months' time, and we have to have measures in place to ensure that the animals aren't infected," Lipkin says. For example, he says, officials could decide to forbid the slaughter of young camels for food since younger animals are more likely to carry the MERS virus.

Dr. David Swerdlow, who heads the team responsible for tracking MERS at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says the Saudi government took steps to discourage the spread of the virus during last year's Hajj, including posting warnings to discourage people older than 65, pregnant women or those who were immune-compromised from making the pilgrimage.

Health authorities have not yet decided what steps to take this year, Swerdlow says, but the United States is watching the situation closely.

"Any time you have an emerging infection that has a high case fatality rate, that's been around for over a year, that has caused illness in multiple countries, that's caused illness in travelers and health care workers, and for which there is no treatment or vaccine, we're concerned. We've been concerned for a year and a half, and we remain concerned."