1959 The 6th Jonas Forbes Thriller
This is set in 1959 London when the Shah of Iran is paying a state visit to Britain. However, the Shah has a glut of enemies both inside and outside his country – including liberals, religious fanatics and communists. Jonas Forbes is hired to help protect the Shah during the visit to Britain, along with Tim Ripley (MI5), Jack Sharpe (MI6) and the police. It soon becomes clear that cooperation between these would-be protectors of the Shah does have its limits.
Even so, the enemy itself is hampered by internal rivalries with differing ideas of what sort of Iran will take over from the Pahlevi dynasty. The obvious threat to the Shah comes from a religious group led by Youness Ghasemi, but an attempt by the police to complete a pre-emptive strike is bungled and the group go into hiding. Danger also comes from the exiled Tudeh Party, but are they merely talking revolution encouraged by the USSR – or is it China?. The Shah's safety is secure in the hands of Savak, the notorious secret police – or do events within the Iranian Embassy show that to be a fallacy?
Jonas tries to secure cooperation with Savak through Reza Karimidad but neither trust the other. Jack Sharpe spots Jalal Qazwini, an assassin long on the run from Savak, but then he disappears, clearly with murder on his agenda. People are being exploited on all sides, perhaps as a distraction from the real threat: somebody is using Youness Ghasemi as a stalking-horse to mislead those protecting the Shah; others, both Iranian and British, are dragged into open acts against the Shah. Jack and Jalal must settle a half-forgotten battle of long ago and Jonas must unmask the arch-manipulator who aims to kill the Shah, but why?.
Historical research underlies a thriller set against an often overlooked incident in the relationship between two political systems undergoing change.