The Land of Lost Content

When General Victor Eliara is elected president of the Russian republic of Karachaevo-Cherkessia, he has every reason to be punching the air. After all, he's been hand-picked by the Kremlin to carry the torch for his Karachai ancestors and bring their ethnic rivals, the Cherkess, to heel. It's not every day that you get carte blanche to settle an ancient score. But a catastrophic publicity stunt involving a flock of pigeons, a gallon of white paint and a squadron of tanks leaves the general biting his fist. In this part of the world, image is everything: either you're a hard-boiled, autocratic leader or you're toast. So Eliara hits on the idea of hiring a PR agent from London to help him wipe the egg off his face. Annie Jordan is hardly the ideal candidate for the job. Devastated by the recent death of her four-year-old son, she's a wide-eyed idealist with a weakness for lost causes. But this makes her easy prey for Martin Locke, a maverick MI6 agent, who persuades her to accept the mission. From where he's sitting, it's a golden opportunity to transform a small-town dictator into a major-league tyrant and stir up a hornet's nest in Russia's backyard.