Author: G. Gray Garland
ISBN: 978-1-4389-3359-7
Publisher: AuthorHouse

 Click Here To Purchase Top Secret: Escape from Iran

Top Secret: Escape from Iran is an action/espionage thriller.  The President of the United States is frustrated with the lack of intelligence about Iran and their nuclear ambitions.  He leans on the Director of Central Intelligence, a man named Cabot, to find a way to obtain intelligence or be replaced.  After Cabot and his staff review information available to them, they settle on contacting an American who has actually lived in Iran for many years, even predating the Islamic revolution. Robert McClelland is an adviser to the country’s leading Mullahs.  He has assisted the Iranians in the illegal procurement of various equipment and supplies that are banned for export by the United States and most of her European allies.  

The director of the CIA considers him a traitor but understands how valuable McClelland can be as a source of intelligence and reluctantly orders his staff to find a way to contact him.  The CIA eventually discovers a friend of McClelland’s from college days at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) and the Marine Corps; Alex Blair. When he is first approached by the CIA, Blair is extremely reluctant to cooperate.  He has become a wealthy man and is enjoying the life has made as a businessman/attorney.  

The first person the government sends to contact Blair is the Assistant Secretary of State for Middle Eastern affairs who wishes to arrange a meting for Blair with the President. Although he is reluctant, he agrees and at the meeting in the Oval Office, Blair is convinced to assist in the project.   

Alex is then shepherded through preparations for meeting McClelland and participation in what has now been named, “operation Fish Hook.”  Early in his briefings by the man who will be his “case officer” for the CIA, Robert Gordon, Blair is told that the primary mission of the project is to use McClelland to locate the Ayatollah Montazeri and to transport him from Iran to the United States. 

Following his initial introduction to the elemental reason for the project, Alex begins training at a CIA facility in Virginia and is introduced to special equipment and operational techniques and meets his partner for the adventure, a stunning blonde woman named Patricia Diaz.  Patricia is an experienced agent, but has had only one assignment before working with Alex. 

The two of them go to Paris and arrange to “accidentally” encounter McClelland and, through him, wrangle an invitation to visit Iran. They discover that McClelland is unhappy in Iran, but fears prosecution if he returns to the U.S. 

The book takes us along with Alex, Patricia and McClelland as they meet the Ayatollah Montazeri—who will only leave if he can take his daughter—through their preparations for the escape and the hide-and-seek they must play to reach the border. 

They are pursued by a determined Iranian soldier who has a special interest in their capture. 

I would have liked for the author to give us a growing characterization of Patricia, but at the surprising end, we learn a stunning fact about her background.

The story is strong and will keep the reader interested. 
 

Click Here To Purchase Top Secret: Escape from Iran