Home Run - Tapa blanda

No one knows better than Matthew Furniss the dangers of espionage in the Middle East. For two decades, spanning the Shah’s rule and the regime of Ayatollah Khomeini, he has run the British agents in Iran. The Islamic Revolution and its aftermath decimated his network of agents and destroyed many of his closest friends. Furniss is ordered to the Middle East to fortify his remaining agents and stimulate a much needed flow of information. Meanwhile Iranian exile Charlie Eshraq, obsessively pursuing the extermination of those responsible for the deaths of his father and sister, smuggles into Britain raw intelligence for Furniss - and heroin to finance his revenge. When a cabinet minister’s daughter dies of an overdose, David Park, head of the Customs ‘April’ team, is charged with hunting down the supplier...and runs into obstruction from Intelligence who must protect their agents. The clash of wills in London, and Furniss’s fateful, dangerous journey into Iran build up to a harrowing climax that confirms Gerald Seymour’s position in the top rank of thriller writers.

It is an unwritten rule in the Intelligence Services that Desk Heads never travel. But when Mattie Furniss is ordered to improve the quality of information coming out of Iran by travelling to the region, it is easy to see that desperation is in the air. In such circumstances, risks are taken and corners cut. And it isn't long before Iran's spymasters are all too aware of his purpose... Unknown to him, Mattie's mission is also about to be blown wide open by other political pressures. When a leading politician's daughter dies of a heroin overdose, the British establishment demands a crackdown on the Iranian traffickers. And with one of his own agents pursuing an unsanctioned war of vengeance in Iran. Mattie is soon alone in the spider's web. In a hostile environment where his every move is tracked, he becomes quickly and painfully aware that the fate of the few will always be sacrificed to the greater good...