Iran, Puppets and Strings

"Iran, Puppets and Strings" is an intricate, fast-moving mystery thriller in the tradition of Robert Ludlum, David Baldacci, and Harlan Coben.

The story finds Cheville Marks, a Nobel Laureate in physics, in the unenviable position of having to take his wife off life support after a year spent in a coma caused by a virus she contracted in the jungles of Brazil.

We also meet Bettie Woods, a brilliant legal mind whose career has come to a crashing halt after losing what should have been cut-and-dried murder case. The high-profile case had been a disaster from start to finish, and it appears that the man who suddenly showed up in her life, who just as suddenly disappeared after the case ended, probably played a hand in its undoing.

Although neither knows it, Cheville and Bettie have something in common: their lives are among those being cynically manipulated by a master puppeteer who is pulling the strings of a vast international conspiracy to overthrow the US government.

Author Sylvia Schwarzkopf deftly guides the reader through a labyrinth of plots and subplots to unveil a chilling conspiracy as astounding in scope as it is surprising at every turn.