Gin Mitchell knows a better life awaits her when she marries hometown hero Mason McPhee. Raised in a two-room shack by her Oklahoma grandfather, a strict Methodist minister, Gin could hardly believe that a handsome college man like Mason would look her way. And nothing can prepare her for the world she and Mason step into when he takes a job with the Arabian American Oil company in Saudi Arabia. In the gated compound of Abqaiq, Gin and Mason are given a home with marble floors, a houseboy, and a gardener. Even among the veiled women and strict laws of shariah, Gin’s life has become the stuff of fairy tales. But when a young Bedouin woman is found dead, washed up on the shore, Gin's world closes in around her, and the one person she trusts is nowhere to be found. In the Kingdom of Men abounds with sandstorms and locust swarms, shrimp peddlers, pearl divers, and Bedouin caravans. Award-winning author Kim Barnes weaves a mesmerizing, richly imagined tale of Americans out of their depth in Saudi Arabia, a marriage in peril, and a woman's quest for the truth.
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The opening caught me immediately and I sped through the book. As I reflect I enjoyed reading the book but throughout felt like the character of Gin wasn't fully developed. I kept waiting to learn more about her, understand her thinking, where she was headed. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters of Yash and Abdullah and the insight they brought from their cultures into Gin's life. Overall, a quick, fun read.
