Can This Be Fiction? Ex-CIA Novelist Takes Us Inside Israel’s Covert Ops in Iran

David McCloskey shifts from Russia to Iran in his latest great spy thriller, “The Persian.”

David McCloskey (author photo)

Picture this: One of Israel’s top spies in Iran is a dentist. That’s right, you could say Mossad agent Kamran Esfahani is well positioned to look right into the mouths of Tehran’s senior officials. But that’s not to say The Persian is in any way a comic novel: It’s a deadly serious, if absolutely entertaining, journey into Israel’s clandestine campaigns to assassinate the regime’s nuclear scientists.

McCloskey’s marvelous invention of Esfahani, a melancholy Iranian exile recruited by Mossad to leave “dreary” Sweden and open a practice in Tehran, is just one of the master strokes the former CIA Middle East analyst-turned highly praised novelist employs to illuminate the real-life intricacies— tradecraft, in spy parlance—required to carry out secret operations right under the noses of the Islamic state’s ruthless security officials. And get away with it—for a while, anyway.

Praise for McCloskey’s previous espionage thrillers—Damascus Station, Moscow X, and The Seventh Floor—all dominated by complex, complicated characters and mendacious, scheming CIA and Russian bureaucrats—has prompted the inevitable comparisons to John LeCarré. Maybe it’s time to retire the cliché and start labelling meritorious others as McCloskey-esque.

In any event, McCloskey makes for a terrific talk show guest and—lucky you—you can hear him in lively conversation with me and SpyTalk Contributing Editor Michael Isikoff on this week’s SpyTalk podcast—on Simplecast, Apple, Spotify or wherever your preferred listening platform.

I’m going to listen again myself on a nice autumn walk through Washington, D.C.’s Rock Creek Park. Why there? It just happens to be the real life haunt of many a spy—and counterspy. ###

The Persian. By David McCloskey. W.W. Norton & Company.