The Tehran Conviction

The latest reliably compelling Jack Teller book once again finds him, perhaps improbably, right in the middle of CIA doings in Iran in both the 50s and 70s. Once disbelief is suspended, you can sit back with another enjoyable but tense thriller that's populated (but not over-burdened) with telling historical detail as well as brisk action.

I found the Tehran Conviction to be an engaging story centered around the involvement of the United States Government in Iran. The story is based on the fledgeling Iranian government after the ouster of the British and then the ultimate overthrow of the Shah in 1979 leading to the hostage situation. The subject matter was engaging and made the book easy to read and left me anxious for more.

The Tehran Conviction depicts a fiery cauldron boiling over with one suspense-filled moment after another. There's no doubt that the author has crafted a compelling page-turner which brings the reader to the edge of curiosity, asking the question "What comes next?" Jack Teller, the author's key character, is unexpectedly caught up in a tortuous role, trying to juggle an inescapable clash of cultures with his own competing personal and professional loyalties, at the heart of which is his own quest for redemption. The Tehran Conviction brings to light the author's view of a decades-long political, social, and economic maelstrom resident to Tehran in the mid-20th century. However, one can't help but believe that, despite having so many overwhelming odds stacked against him, Jack Teller will ultimately become involved in more than just the quest for redemption. At novel's end, his uncharacteristic exploration of Yeats' poetry, reveals the striking possibility of yet another unexpected adventure brewing, as he reads "Surely, some revelation is at hand . . ." But then that's what sequels are often destined to reveal.

I concur with all that the previous reviewer has written so I only wish to elaborate on one point. What we are seeing, hearing and reading about in Iran in June, 2009 and why it is important that the U.S. is not seen to be meddling in their election is all excitingly and suspensefully portrayed in The Tehran Conviction. All one needs to know about Operation Ajax led by Kermit Roosevelt and it's sequence of unintended consequences for ensuing generations is laid out in this most topical and entertaining political thriller. You will not be disappointed.

In 1953 rookie CIA espionage agent Jack Teller is in Iran posing as an American oil executive. There he makes friends with Iranian government official Yari Fatemi, who is optimistic about the future of his country under the recent free election of Mohammad Mossadegh as Prime Minister. Mossadegh nationalizes the oil industry in an attempt to improve the overall economy, alienating the free marketers of the west. However, not too long afterward he betrays his buddy and his Iranian family as part of the British-American covert Operation Ajax that overthrows the nation's democratically elected Prime Minister and reinstates the figurehead Shah as the prime power. Over the years Jack has felt remorse and guilt for what he did to his Iranian friend. So in 1979 when the Islamic revolution of Ayatollah Khomeini overthrows the Shah, he is shocked when Yari's sister Zahra, whose eyes accuse him of murder, visits him in New York. She tells him Yari is in prison awaiting state execution. Needing a chance for redemption or die trying, Jack obsesses over returning to Iran to somewhat rectify the betrayal that haunts him twenty-six years after the fact. The third Teller espionage thriller (see THE BERLIN CONSPIRACY and THE LISBON CROSSING) is a great spy tale that also provides a deep look at two of the three key latter half of the twentieth century events that has shaped current Iranian-American relations. The story line is fast-paced and filled with action in both periods, but its Jack and Yari who bring human faces to both coup d'etat incidents. This may be the best spy novel of the year as Tom Gabbay provides an exciting thriller that also provides the Iranian perspective of the axis of evil is "The Great Satan" (USA) and Britain. Harriet Klausner