Title:	Deadline Yemen
	Author:	Peggy Hanson
	Published:	2013
	No. of Pages:	309
	Cover Price:	$14.99 Paperback, $3.99 Kindle

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Deadline Yemen is the second installment in Peggy Hanson's Elizabeth Darcy series. Elizabeth, who is a reporter and covered the civil war Yemen in 1994, travels to Yemen again (1997) to write a series of stories for her newspaper, and also to help a friend, Halima al Shem, who has a problem that only Elizabeth can help solve. While waiting for contact from her friend Halima, Elizabeth gets involved in trying to find the murderer of her seatmate on the flight over, Michael Petrovich; she becomes acquainted with Richard Queens, a Brit, who was also on the flight. Elizabeth meets several other characters through her old friend Tom Reilly, and several suspects emerge; few of Elizabeth's new acquaintances can be trusted, and more murders are committed.

During the course of the novel, Elizabeth's life is on the line at several different times, as well as members of Halima's family. There is an air of suspense throughout, and readers will have no idea until the very end who the bad guys really are, or what the reasons are for some of them being in Yemen.

One of the best things about this novel is that Hanson has captured the culture of Yemen, and readers will feel like they are actually there. Her excellent writing style makes the novel easy to read, and easy to imagine just what Yemen looks like. Hanson offers some insight on the wearing of burqas and baltos; there is also a glossary of Arabic terms at the end, and they are in italics throughout the novel to help with understanding. For those who aren't well-versed in Islam, and the treatment of women in Yemen, there are many facts that help acquaint the reader, and even if Deadline Yemen weren't a great story, her characters know how to act under the strict rules in this country, and that alone would be very helpful to any woman traveling to Yemen.

There are a few minor editing errors, but they really don't take away from the suspense or story of the novel. Most of the chapters are short, and at the top of every chapter is a quote; many from Yemen books, newspapers, poetry, etc., Jane Austen's novel, Emma, or other literary works. These quotes can be a little distracting, but are also full of facts about Yemen, and do add to the charm of the book.

It is no coincidence that the heroine of the series is named after one of Jane Austen's characters; the author is obviously a Jane Austen fan, and so is the protagonist. Jane Austen aficionados will notice parallels between the characters in this novel and characters in Austen's novels, as well as in the treatment of women in the early1800s in England and Arabic countries today.

All told, this is a well-written, fascinating novel and is highly recommended.

Special thanks to PJ Nunn of Breakthrough Promotions who supplied a review copy of this novel.

This book may be purchased at Amazon:
Deadline Yemen (The Elizabeth Darcy Series), Paperback
Deadline Yemen (The Elizabeth Darcy Series) Kindle Edition