Fourth in former CIA analyst David McCloskey’s set of novels portraying modern espionage, The Persian focuses on operatives in the Middle East. At its core, this political thriller is about an Iranian program to assassinate Israeli intelligence agents, in Iran or on their home ground, versus Mossad’s determination to stop it by whatever means necessary. Given the high stakes, a failing dentist might not be your first choice to wade into a sea of tit-for-tat killings. But McCloskey’s dentist is a little unusual. Kamran Esfahani is an Iranian national living in Sweden, and a Persian Jew.
The story is told in episodes beginning four years before the now of the story, in the form of a written confession by Esfahani. He has been captured, imprisoned and tortured, and must write out every detail of his experience with the Israelis for a shadowy general. Esfahani has now been imprisoned for three years and is convinced that if he ever finishes his confession to the general’s satisfaction, he will be killed.
Esfahani was recruited to work for the Israelis by Arik Glitzman, received training along with several other disaffected Iranians. He was set up in a dental office in Tehran. Glitzman is the chief of Mossad’s Caesarea Division, whose purpose is to sow chaos and mayhem in Iran – targeted killings, cyberattacks and sabotage. Why would Esfahani turn against his own countrymen to aid Israel? True, he’s only modestly successful when he first meets Glitzman, and more than a little dissatisfied with his humdrum life. As a Jew, he has always been outside the Iranian mainstream. But he professes that his motive was mainly financial. He dreams of California, and that will take money. Money that he was earning by working for Glitzman.
Meanwhile, the Iranian assassination team run by a Colonel Ghorbani has set up a tight unit that operates outside the usual Qods Force bureaucracy. Its secretive offices are in a large home in the affluent northern Tehran neighbourhood of Niavaran. There are no joint communications or personnel, which they think means there’s no possibility of leaks. It operates with a high level of technical sophistication too, using drones to evade Israel’s air defence system and deliver lethal strikes on Glitzman’s staff in Tel Aviv.
In the book’s opening scene, an Iranian government scientist is assassinated by an autonomous weapon controlled by the Israelis, who have had him under close surveillance. His widow, Roya, and daughter, Alya, survive. Roya, as the widow of a martyr, is rewarded with a job as a sort of concierge for the house in Niavaran. Esfahani is given the job of befriending her in order to learn more about the goings-on there. McCloskey devises an intricate plot that would let her overcome her scruples and an operation by which she would come to trust the dentist. Although they are emblematic of the plotting skill of the author throughout the entire story, they are presented as pure Glitzman: beautifully orchestrated, but subject to human error and human feelings. They also open up a tangled and volatile relationship between these two characters, in which truth is another victim.
McCloskey’s plot also draws on real-life tensions and deteriorated relations between the two countries, making it all-too-plausible. It affords good opportunity to consider the changing technological face of warfare at all scales – from the large-scale military actions between Russia and Ukraine to the clandestine attacks planned by Glitzman and Ghorbani. Like real-life commanders, the two men are not immune from political pressures, which do not always lead to the results that are desired or expected.
The two sides play Esfahani. They use friendship and fear, loyalty and pride, embarrassment and hope. The dentist has to remember what he’s said and written in the past – he daren’t contradict himself – and must provide enough information to avoid another beating, while withholding the few bits he keeps to himself. You might be justified in thinking he’s rather a slender reed to pin much trust on, but like a reed, perhaps, he can bend when he needs to and avoid breaking. Going back in time from the present day, when he’s writing, to the events he’s writing about, which ultimately landed him in prison, does involve some time shifts, but these are skilfully handled and quite easy to follow.
It’s interesting that David McCloskey chose to let readers know up front that Esfahani was eventually captured, and that the story is really the one he has written about his activities. By erasing that overriding source of doubt, all the micro tensions of the individual operations and contacts can come to the fore. As a result, this is a powerful book that engages you at both the intellectual and the emotional levels.
For on-screen espionage, see our preview of the new series of The Night Manager.
Swift Press
Print
£11.99
CFL Rating: 5 Stars
