A father searches for his missing son in 1953 Tehran in this brilliantly plotted espionage thriller from the bestselling author of Triple Cross.
London, 1953. Harry Towers is a recently retired, and even more recently widowed, British intelligence officer. But he springs to action when hears that his estranged son Sean has disappeared in Tehran after writing a damning article about the involvement of government officials in the opium trade.
In Tehran, a city on the brink of a historic coup, Harry’s career as a spy soon proves perfect training for this much more personal mission as American, British, Iranian, and French players flit in and out of the scene. But as the first attempt at a coup in the city fails and foreign powers jockey for oil, money, and influence, Sean’s disappearance takes on a more sinister tone. Was he really taken in retribution for his reporting, or is this an attempt to silence a globally significant revelation he was preparing to make?
Or, most terrifying of all, does Sean’s disappearance have nothing to do with him at all? Has Harry’s past caught up to them all?
Praise for Tom Bradby
“[A] cracking, uber-topical spy thriller . . . a plot full of twists and turns.” —Financial Times
“Enthralling and fast-moving . . . packed with details of modern tradecraft in the twilight world of spooks, against a background of politics at its most Machiavellian, it is the stuff headlines are made of.” —Daily Mail
“Bradby masterfully combines textured psychological drama with a rip-roaring plot that boasts several dizzying switchbacks along the way to a genuinely shocking conclusion.” —Booklist (starred review)
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
August 2, 2022 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780802159052
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780802159052
- File size: 2659 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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January 1, 2022
Retired from British intelligence, the recently widowed Harry Towers rushes to 1953 brink-of-a-coup Tehran to find estranged journalist son Sean when he disappears after exposing governmental involvement in the opium trade. Harry teams up with Sean's Iranian girlfriend, Shahnaz, but begins wondering whether he himself is the target here. From the CWA Steel Dagger and twice Historical Crime Novel short-listed Bradby.
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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May 16, 2022
The disappearance of journalist Sean Tower in Tehran, Iran, drives this intelligent spy thriller from Bradby (the Kate Henderson series) set in 1953. Sean’s father, recently retired British spy Harry Towers, flies from London to the Iranian capital to find him just as the coup to depose Iran’s nationalist leader, Mohammed Mossadegh, and install the Shah, Reza Pahlavi, gets underway. Aided by Sean’s girlfriend, Shahnaz, Harry looks to local contacts, government officials, and ex-pats—mostly spies from the United States, Britain, and France—for answers. Was Sean targeted because of his left-wing politics? Has he been recruited by the Soviets? Or is his disappearance retribution for something Harry did as an undercover agent with Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service? On occasion, particularly toward the end, politics and flashbacks to Harry’s personal and professional life slow the momentum, but they are always relevant to the story. Bradby smoothly mixes geopolitical intrigue, old-fashioned sleuthing, and cinematic action. Fans of smart, historical espionage will be rewarded. Agent: George Lucas, InkWell Management. -
June 1, 2022
Bradby gives his Kate Henderson series a rest (Triple Cross, 2021) to tell the story of retired spy Harry Tower. In 1953, Harry's career is over, his wife has committed suicide, and his estranged son, journalist Sean, has gone missing in Tehran, where revolution is simmering and where the Brits, Americans, and Soviets have long sparred over oil; now Sean appears to have landed in the middle of all that jockeying for power. Harry, though he's confronted by ""anxiety without shape, melancholy without limit, and darkness with no promise of dawn,"" knows he must reconnect with his Tehran contacts and reignite the dying embers of his tradecraft if he is to save his son. That won't be easy, however, as the Brits need a scapegoat, and Harry, an outsider in the clubbie world of public-school spies, is the perfect candidate. The Iranian politics get a little difficult to follow, but in the end, this corkscrewing novel is about individuals trying to escape the shackles of their own beliefs, and Bradby explores that ever-rich theme with a Graham Greene-like grasp of how politics stand in the way of love.COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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June 1, 2022
Best-selling novelist (Double Agent) and ITV television broadcaster Bradby's latest historical espionage thriller is set amid the political turmoil of Iran in the 1950s. Recently retired and recently widowed British Intelligence lifer Harry Towers learns that his estranged son Sean, a muckraking journalist in Tehran, has disappeared after publishing a piece about government corruption there. Harry can't shake the feeling that the morally ambiguous choices he made in Tehran during his intelligence career have come back to haunt him, in the form of Sean's disappearance, and he decides to take action. Against the backdrop of an impending coup, Harry travels to Tehran and revisits his old life there as he begins his search. He joins forces with Sean's fianc�e, Shahnaz, but soon discovers that her motivations are as questionable as everyone else's. The novel's ending has a twist that's unusual in a spy thriller, and Bradby's writing is crisp. After an awkward start, his story gathers momentum and becomes hard to put down. VERDICT The atmospherics, geopolitical issues, montage writing style, and protagonist's moral ambiguities will remind readers of spy novels by Jack Higgins and Frederick Forsyth.--James Woods Marshall
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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