My Washington Times Review of 'The Last Man In Tehran'

The Washington Times published my review of Mark Hemshaw’s The Last Man in Tehran.

 Mark Henshaw, the author of the “The Last Man in Tehran” and the three previous spy thrillers in his “Red Cell” series, is a veteran CIA analyst who served in the CIA’s Red Cell Unit.

As Mr. Henshaw wrote in his debut novel, “Red Cell,” the unit is an alternative analysis unit set up by then-CIA Director George Tenet on Sept. 13, 2001 to ensure that the CIA didn’t suffer another surprise like the Sept. 11 attack. The Red Cell’s job is to play devil’s advocate and think out of the box. The unit was to discover possibilities that other analysts might overlook or dismiss.

“The Last Man in Tehran” opens on Nov. 4, 1979 outside of the American Embassy, where the embassy employees have been taken prisoner by students in support of the Iranian Islamic revolution. Sitting on a bench in Honarmandan Park is an Israeli Mossad officer named Gavi Ronen. The Israeli intelligence officer was meeting his counterpart in SAVAK, the ousted Shaw’s secret police. The two intelligence officers lament the current events and say their goodbyes.

Kyra Stryker, a case officer brought in from the cold due to a fiasco in Venezuela and assigned to the Red Cell unit in the first novel, has been recently promoted to be chief of the Red Cell unit. In her first days as the Red Cell chief a radioactive “dirty bomb” is detonated in the Port of Haifa in Israel.

Suspecting the Iranians, the Mossad counterattack with a campaign of sabotage and assassinations. The CIA then discovers that someone in the CIA is helping the Israelis wage the covert war. The FBI is brought in to find the CIA mole and Kyra Stryker is assigned to work with the FBI.

... According to the publisher, the dirty bomb attack on Haifa was based on a fictional event which occurred in a war game that Mr. Henshaw organized and ran for the CIA. All of the historical events referenced in the novel are true and the descriptions of CIA headquarters and other locations are accurate. This realism adds to the suspense and believability of the story.

“The Last Man in Tehran” is a suspenseful and action-packed novel that spy thriller fans will enjoy.

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jan/24/book-review-the-last-man-in-tehran/ 

 You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine interview with CIA analyst and author Mark Henshaw (seen in the above photo) about spies in fact and fiction via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2016/06/spies-in-fact-and-fiction-my-q-with-cia.html 

The Fall Of Moscow Station

Veteran journalist and author Joseph C. Goulden offers a good review in the Washington Times of Mark Henshaw's The Fall of Moscow Station.

Although a primary purpose of a counterintelligence unit is the apprehension of enemy spies, an equally important function requires a bit more sophistication: throwing handfuls of destructive sand into the gear boxes of a rival espionage agency.

Such is the climax of a sparkling spy thriller by CIA veteran Mark Henshaw, whose insider point of view adds authenticity to a yarn that, to me, evoked memories of the late Tom Clancy.

Mr. Henshaw's book is the third in a series featuring CIA officer Kyra Stryker and her analyst colleague, Jonathan Burke, who work in a CIA unit called “the Red Cell.” According to Mr. Henshaw, George Tenet as director of central intelligence created Red Cell in September 2001 as a “devil’s advocate unit to tell me what no one else is telling me.” Mr. Henshaw’s 16 years at the agency included a stint in the unit. (A press release even gives the office’s location, Room 2G31, Old Headquarters Building.)

The story builds (roughly) on two real-life events in recent intelligence history. One was the defection to the Soviets of CIA officer Edward Lee Howard in September 1985, after he had been trained in highly secret “Moscow Rules” — the tradecraft used by the CIA station in Moscow.

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/may/23/book-review-the-fall-of-moscow-station-a-novel/?page=1

Note: My interview with Mark Henshaw will appear in the upcoming issue of Counterterrorism magazine. I'll post the interview here when the magazine comes out. 

You can read my Washington Times review of Red Cell, Mark Henshaw's first spy novel in the series, via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2012/07/new-tom-clancy-review-of-mark-henshaws.html

My Washington Times Review Of Mark Henshaw's Spy Thriller 'Red Cell'

The Washington Times published my review of Mark Henshaw's new spy thriller, Red Cell, today.

Henshaw, a veteran CIA analyst, has written a fast-paced and gripping debut novel. He has been called the new Tom Clancy.

The action in this thriller takes place in the offices and corridors of CIA headquarters, the streets and alleys of Beijing, and on the deck and passageways of an aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean. (As a former sailor who served on an aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War, I especially enjoyed the carrier action).

The thriller describes real CIA offices and units, including Red Cell, where Henshaw himself served three years, and the spy tradecraft is real - up to a classified point. Likewise, the American and Chinese military units and tactics are accurate.

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jul/13/book-review-red-cell/?page=all#pagebreak