The Tehran Conviction »

Tom Gabbay is the author of The Berlin Conspiracy and The Lisbon Crossing. He previously worked for NBC Entertainment as director of children's and comedy programs, and was creative director of the production partnership between NBC and ITV Television in the United Kingdom. He lives in Europe.

Agent Jack Teller had to make an ugly choice in his youth.

Now, decades later, he and his country must deal with the blowback.

Tehran 1953. A new recruit to the recently established CIA, Jack Teller is torn between loyalty to U.S. policies and sympathy for the hopes of a fledgling democracy in Iran—and he must choose which side he will betray.

Twenty-six years later, Jack returns to a very different Iran—a nation in the grip of a religious revolution, its populace clamoring for the destruction of “The Great Satan” America. Descending into the deadly chaos at the heart of an emerging struggle between the West and a dangerous new ideology, Jack must risk everything to save one man from Islamic justice—a man he once called his friend.

Publishers Weekly

Gabbay's winning third thriller to feature CIA spook Jack Teller (after The Lisbon Crossing) focuses on Iran during two pivotal years: 1953, when a mistake-laden covert CIA operation overthrew the nation's prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, and 1979, during the chaos of the Islamic revolution and Ayatollah Khomeini's rise to power. In 1953, as a naïve Company recruit, Teller befriends an idealistic Iranian government official, Yari Fatemi, only to be manipulated into betraying him and his family. In 1979, when Yari's sister shows up in New York and informs Teller that her brother is in jail awaiting certain execution, Teller feels compelled to return to Iran in a suicidal attempt to save Yari. Powered by relentless pacing and a story line abounding in subterfuge, treachery and subversion, this Ludlumesque page-turner offers invaluable historical insights into the turbulent relationship between America ("the Great Satan") and Iran. (June)

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