The Thirteenth Tribe

As concern over Iran's nuclear aspirations is becoming more prominent in the news this work of fiction may attract attention. It is a romantic thriller , set largely in Tehran, Edinburgh and London, covering the period 1998 to 2006 when Iran's venture into nuclear development began to worry the West. The political figures of that period are thinly disguised.

The heroine is Soraya, daughter of a senior Iranian civil servant. At seventeen, Soraya is required to witness a public execution. She does not believe the official reason for the execution and is determined to find out the real reason. Fearing for her safely her parents encourage her to enrol as a student of mathematics at the University of Edinburgh. She falls in love with a fellow maths student, John Russell, and makes other colourful friends but never ceases to think about that execution. She makes progress in following the trail during her summer vacations back in Tehran.

As the story unfolds, Soraya brings out the best in John and her friends. The tasks facing them are formidable: to foil maverick and State-led plots to develop nuclear bombs. Soraya and John have the additional problem of resolving their cultural and religious differences.

The novel is interspersed with subtleties of semantics (for characterization) and a few mathematical niceties (for the plot), but mainly it is a tale of twists and high adventure.