The Alchemy of Love and War

About the Book

Dr. Blair Edwards, a macho cowboy from the Rockies, is a chemistry professor at the American University of Beirut during the 1980s. Although he feels at home in war-torn Lebanon, he still wants to freely walk down the street, enjoy a turkish coffee, and admire pretty women. Unfortunately because of the chaos that fills the streets, Edwards has been locked inside the university gates for too long. One day when he decides his appetite for a passionate liaison overrides his fears of being killed or kidnapped, Edwards convinces a guard to open the gates. While on his way back to the university a few hours later, he is seized by hooded gunmen and taken hostage. The price on his head is eight million dollars. Even as he is tortured, Edwards falls in love with one of his captors, a Lebanese nurse attending his battered body. When Edwards learns he has been chosen to mold American public opinion about the challenges in the Middle East, he formulates an escape plan with assistance from his new love. But will he be able to use his knowledge of chemistry to pull it off and emerge a changed person or die trying? In this gripping tale, an American professor kidnapped by revolutionary terrorists in war-torn Beirut must attempt to escape, with help from a beautiful and revolutionary Lebanese nurse.

About the Author

John W. Livingston earned a BS degree in engineering at MIT, and a PhD from Princeton. He is currently a professor of Islamic History and Civilization and Modern Middle East History at William Paterson University. He has published articles in leading Muslim Studies journals, penned a novel, and has written two books to be published by Ashgate Press. He works and lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he continues to write.