Forty Thieves is the first book of a trilogy set in 1994 in the fictional country of Al-Khali on the south coast of the Arabian peninsula. The lead characters are the four members of the Defense Attache Office in the US Embassy and their actions interacting with the local government, the diplomatic corps, and the managers of the newly begun oil drilling an exporting company to defend the country and its oil enterprise against terrorism and sabotage. There are subplot, including a love affair between the American defense attache and a British diplomat, the internal machinations of the Al-Khali government, the operations of the oil exploitation company, and the probable malfeasance of the American ambassador and his wife.