Mark Watson

'Dubai is a good place to win. And a really, really bad place to lose . . .'Junior advertising creative Tim Callaghan can hardly believe his luck when his idea for a commercial is commissioned by an international charity. He's flown out to Dubai to supervise the project and is immediately enticed by the city - a futuristic environment unlike anywhere he's ever been before. The first few days go by in a blur: Tim meets the heads of the charity and the production team; a movie star flies in to appear in the advert; and The Village, the five-star resort in which they're staying, offers an almost uncanny level of customer service. Then filming begins, a crew member dies, and things get complicated . . . Beautiful, seductive, brilliantly managed and a little bit frightening, Dubai itself is like an advert, and takes on an increasingly unsettling atmosphere as the murder investigation begins. The longer Tim stays, the more surreal everything seems: the mysterious death, the ad campaign, even the charity. As Tim's assumptions evaporate one by one in the heat of the desert city, all that's certain is that he needs to get out before it's too late.

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