The Citroen was not going to clear. ...Ender found he could not tolerate the thought of an escape. It was less a decision than a pissed-off recollection of a man who had tried to take part of his arm away.

Ender stood on the accelerator and for the first time knew how that felt. He was standing, he was no longer in the seat, his body was pushing forward and he understood in the fraction of an instant there was going to be an impact of some significance if the two machines met.

Would they?

Then the two cars met for longer than seemed possible. The instant it took to happen also seemed elongated and pushed out of shape. The Citroen flashed by in a smear of blue that crowded out everything in Ender's vision until the noise crowded out that and everything else, too.

The way metal screamed when it was pierced was the way the world would end, bumping once like an empty box and entering the second phase in a parting of steel and plastic and glass, then it would rip like animal horn, like something that was dead but living to the bone. It would only stop when the blue car paused in its velocity, and like a train off track tried to correct its course, coming about, showing its face instead of its bleeding ass, as it went over the side.

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When Alfred Rydell, a noted journalist, is murdered in Istanbul, his wealthy family has questions and they demand answers. Jason Ender is ordered by the State Department to find them. And he's just the man to negotiate the huge labyrinthine city that gave Byzantine its name.

What secret had the journalist uncovered that cost him his life? Why does the shadow of the Turkish Mafia cling so closely to every move Ender makes? More important, is this man capable of dealing with the pending chaos that threatens to rearrange the map of the Middle East in a single night?

I live in Istanbul most of the year, so the location and characters are ones I know well. A city of fifteen million people, Istanbul is by far the most fascinating place in the Middle East. The bridge between East and West, Europe and Asia, all lies within the same city.

Less Than A Shadow works its way through the tumult, conspiracies and colors of the city that gave the world the word Byzantine. This synonym for intrigue has lost none of its meaning in the last 2000 years.

Take the strange and sudden trip.

David Chacko