Settle's greatest achievement in Blood Tie is her characterization. The characters are authentic and memorable, including the minor characters such as old Attila the donkey driver, who wears a faded Harvard sweatshirt and whose right hand was cut off for smuggling. Settle is as good with the Turkish characters as with the Americans, perhaps better. With the Turkish characters, comes the sense of going inside a foreign culture. With the American and European characters, the reader gets a similar feel for the close-knit expatriate circle.

Even the characters who seem stereotypical have unique features. The old agha resembles a movie Mafia godfather, but he has a definite Turkish accent, worrying about his lemons instead of his tomatoes. Frank Proctor, the local CIA man, obviously works for the company: He is a "team player" who does not question his superior or policy even when they are wrong. But his...