Green Line Runner

A thriller set in Cyprus is unusual. In 1974 Turkey invaded the island and seized over a third of it, causing innumerable Greek civilians to flee for their lives. A Berlin Wall-like monstrosity called the Green Line was built across the country to separate the Greeks and Turks. Divided into two separate states, Cyprus was ruined, displaced persons numbered in the hundreds of thousands, and refugee camps abounded. That was the situation in 1979, when John Reid arrived in Greek Cyprus. A Scotsman raised in Cyprus, Reid is here now to visit his old haunts, but it means crossing the Green Line. 342 men have been shot trying to cross. To cross the Green Line means death. Reid is the first man to cross the Line, making several trips back and forth, some for reasons other than tourism, and becomes celebrated on both sides as the Green Line Runner. His last trip is complicated by the presence of an American girl, the daughter of an old nemesis, a CIA man with more than sufficient reason to kill Reid. To make it worse, Reid runs afoul of the Turkish Cypriot Secret Service, and almost doesn’t make it back.

John Stewart has written several non-fiction books on such topics as Africa, Antarctica, the British Empire, Moons of the Solar System, Australian movies, Italian movies, Broadway musicals, the British circus, Lord Byron, Jefferson Davis, and Confederate spies. He is winner of numerous reference book awards and lives in West Jefferson, North Carolina.