Woman of Cairo / Dear, Deadly Beloved

In this double novel volume, Stark House Press has reprinted the first two of five Hart Muldoon novels, originally released in 1953 and 1954 respectively. Muldoon is a former OSS agent who stayed on in Europe doing jobs here and there. What both of these seemingly dissimilar novels have in common is that they expose the raw underbelly of Europe’s post war jetset.Woman in Cairo is the more accessible of the two, a classic postwar espionage novel set in the exotic locale of Cairo as revolution rages in the street and mobs seem to control the ancient country’s destiny. Muldoon finds himself caught in a mess amidst those who survived Europe’s hellish nightmare that left few unscathed. It is a story about trust and betrayal and certainly a classic adventure filled with evil men, hurtling knives, and twisted femme fatales. Of course, it simply adds to the fast paced suspense that Muldoon has to stop a plot that could turn the new world asunder.Dear, Deadly Beloved is the more difficult of the two novels to read. At first, it seems to be more than the classic murder mystery weekend set on an Italian island retreat instead of a hotel in the Poconos. If you can get past the numerous interconnected characters and their meaningless parties and dinners and affairs, you’ll see as Muldoon does that this Mediterranean jetset is filled with empty people all compromised in one way or another and willing to twist the knife in one’s back.