About Peyman Pejman
Peyman Pejman is an award-winning journalist with over 20 years of experience. He has worked with respected newspapers, news agencies and radio stations such as The Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Cox Newspapers, The Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters, Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Pejman has extensive experience in the Middle East and the Arab world. His tenure in the Middle East has corresponded with important timelines in the region: the Iranian revolution, the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the Gulf Wars and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
In addition to his journalistic career, he has been a media and communications professor and a media consultant/advisor/trainer.
The Review
Set in 2020, Charlie Shahin, journalist turned CIA agent, must report on unrest in the Middle East. As he begins to send in reports, it seems that his adopted country is ignoring him.
HUGE SPOILER ALERT:
With the help of various friends accumulated over his years reporting in the area and of his wife Sarah, herself a Saudi princess, Charlie races to protect the possible/probable targets, USA and Israel, from nuclear attack by Iran who is being aided by his sister Sade.
I enjoyed the book because I learned more detail about the Middle East and its cultures and because I enjoy apocalyptic-type novels filled with espionage and trickery.
The book I read was likely a pre-pub copy, because it still needs heavy editing–many typos and some malapropisms. I would have liked there to be more descriptive writing to further flesh out the characters. One can definitely see the hand of a journalist/author in the way the book reads.
Still, I liked it!
4 Stars
About Age of Intolerance
Age of Intolerance is both an espionage thriller tackling a serious and newsworthy current affairs topic and heart-warming saga of a relationship between estranged brother and sister, each having pledged allegiance to a political master bent on defeating the other.
Charles Shahin is a American journalist of Iranian descent whom the Central Intelligence Agency convinces to become a spy, skirting a long-held tradition that spy agencies not recruit reporters. Pretending to be a reporter for a US-based Internet newsgathering site, Shahin settles in sleepy Cyprus, long the center of spies and money launderers dealing with or keeping an eye on the Middle East.
While in Cyprus, Shahin gets wind of an Iranian plan to destabilize the Persian Gulf and purchase Chinese military secrets to build nuclear technology capable of hitting the United States and Israel. The plot was hatched by none other than his long-lost sister, now a ranking official in Iran.
Despite repeated warning, CIA bosses fail to mount a coherent strategy. What occupies Washington’s mind more is a spate of domestic acts of terrorism. Careful examination reveals the existence of a fanatic religious group inside the United States, bred and funded by none other than Washington’s best ally in the Arab world: Saudi Arabia. The Saudi goal: to “export” its internal “troubles” and force America to pick a fight with a common enemy: Iran.
Convinced an Iranian attack is imminent, Shahin and his wife — a Saudi princess — try to stop it, knowing US government bureaucracy is fractured and reaching a consensus might take too long.
Help comes from an unlikely ally, which, no doubt, has its own political ambitions, and its card to play.
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