The Tehran Conviction (Jack Teller Series) » (Bargain)

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.

Tom Gabbay plots his most riveting tale yet: Agent Jack Teller had to make an ugly choice in his youth . . . and now, decades later, he and the United States must deal with the blowback.

Tehran 1953. Jack Teller, a new recruit to the recently established Central Intelligence Agency, finds himself in Iran posing as a high-level American oil executive as part of Operation Ajax, the agency's first attempt to overthrow the government of a sovereign nation. Torn between loyalty to his country's policies and sympathy for the hopes of a fledgling democracy, Jack must ultimately pick which side he will betray. It is a decision that will affect the future of the Middle East and, eventually, the world.

Twenty-six years later, in 1979, Jack returns to a very different Iran. The country is in the grip of a religious revolution, and the streets of the capital city are filled with daily rantings against The Great Satan. Jack's attempt to save one man from Islamic justice—a man whom he had, at one time, called a friend—leads him into the heart of an emerging struggle between the West and a new and dangerous ideology.

Divided by conflicting loyalties, a young Jack Teller made a fateful choice that would reverberate for decades. In The Tehran Conviction, Tom Gabbay masterfully interweaves politics and suspense in a searing tale of espionage and betrayal that reveals the unexpected costs our decisions hold for us—and for history.

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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