Halidom
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- USD 4.99
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- USD 4.99
Publisher Description
Once cultural and athletic competitors, Israel and Iran became sworn enemies after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Although a tense coexistence held for over four decades, Israeli leaders understood that the fragile peace could crumble at any moment. The Mossad insisted that a contingency plan would be crucial for their country's continued survival. To that end, they devised a scheme that involved placing a deep-cover sleeper agent into the upper echelons of Iranian government and society.
Renowned Iranian archeologist Ezekiel Darvish was the perfect mole. Born and raised in Tehran, he hadn't learned that he was a Jew until he was a teenager. But once he did, as a bon vivant and scholar, he moved seamlessly through Iranian academia and politics, clandestinely supplying the Mossad with telltale secrets needed to achieve their ultimate goal: a durable, permanent Middle East peace.
Yet even Darvish is an unwitting pawn. Having been born out of wedlock, he never knew his father. But the moment that secret is uncovered, he understands that its revelation could either help him—or destroy him. With the aid of American confidants, Darvish struggles to keep out of Iranian crosshairs, until the mission is accomplished.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Iranian archaeology professor Ezekiel Darvish, the protagonist of this implausible thriller from Shobin (The President's Doctor), publicly asserts that the Quran may have resulted from the Prophet Muhammad's ingestion of alkaloids in a hallucinogenic plant, despite the extreme sensitivity of his country's religious leaders to even the appearance of heresy. That suggestion naturally lands Darvish in prison, though he's freed shortly after the chief of the Directorate of Security Investigation discovers that the academic is a previously unknown son of Ayatollah Khomeini. Darvish goes on to look into evidence of the historicity of Jesus and Solomon's Temple in the belief that what he finds could potentially bring lasting peace to the region. Attempts on his life and international intrigue ensue. Sloppy details—few would agree Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was "an ultra-right-wing conservative"—undermine suspending disbelief. Gratuitous sex scenes and cumbersome prose ("Over his de rigueur open-collar, short-sleeve white shirt, Wertheim's nicotine-stained fingers constantly kept an unfiltered cigarette beside his face") don't help. Dan Brown this is not.
