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Iran in 1953 is seething with a bitter rivalry among those who back the Shah (and his foreign allies) versus those who want a fairer deal for the Iranian people; even back then the coup was all about who controls (and profits) from the oil. He skillfully depicts life in Teheran where modern automobiles share the roads with donkeys and camels, spicy aromas drift on the wind from bazaars, and chic western styles of dress and grooming co-exist uneasily with traditional Muslim garb.
It’s even further complicated by something the Americans are demanding from the British, something Harry won’t like very much. I never really unpacked his relationship with his immediate family; the loss of his wife and the disappearance of his son in Tehran.We follow him through his recruitment by MI6, his wartime assignments behind enemy lines, and his postwar work sending anti-Communist agents to infiltrate Yugoslavia and Albania. I have enjoyed each of the Tom Bradby novels I have read so far and would certainly recommend this one. Finding his son is supposed to be his redemption for twenty years of neglect and the suicide of his wife, but it never feels very real. That potential was not realized, with much more of a focus on James Bond-esque action with little character development.
They were concerned about a communist take-over of Iran but mostly it was to do with power and oil, and were ruthless in its acquisition. The Department are nervous, so Champion’s oldest wartime ally is sent to the South of France to investigate. Firstly, it is set in a place and time I wasn't familiar with, the days surrounding the 1953 coup in Tehran. A slow-burner at times, Tower is portrayed as a man conflicted as he travels across Iran with his son’s Iranian girlfriend, Shahnaz, herself the rebellious daughter of a general, steering him through bureaucratic and military obstacles.Harry Towers flies to Tehran without telling anyone but it soon transpires that he has been followed and continues to be so. Revisiting some of the characters from The IPCRESS File, Spy Story shows military games played out for real, and the Cold War turning dangerously hot. I read this shortly after reading the highly acclaimed John Le Carre novel "Tinker, Tailor Soldier, Spy" and it took me a while for me to separate this book from that one, particularly the main character Harry Tower who would fit right in the Le Carre novel.
Author Tom Bradby’s latest offering ‘Yesterday’s Spy’ is set mainly in 1950’s Tehran and features recently retired SIS agent Harry Towers. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions.The protagonist, Harry Tower, comes across as mild-mannered and a bit bumbling - but has a long history of working in various countries (and some spectacularly horribly fails), and this comes home to roost with a vengeance here, as he gets involved in trying to find his journalist son, who has been disappeared in Iran.
While the main story is set in Iran in 1953, there are flashbacks to Harry’s life as a student in Germany in 1933. Instead he is torn between conflicting loyalties, and lost in a maze of double-dealing and duplicity.Still, Tom Brady structured the novel to make it possible for the reader to appreciate the story without liking the protagonist.
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