Publishers Weekly
10/31/2022
Meltzer and Mensch follow up The Lincoln Conspiracy with an action-packed account of the German plan to assassinate the leaders of the U.S., Britain, and the Soviet Union in Tehran in 1943. The story begins after the plot has been discovered, with Franklin Roosevelt hunkered down in the back of a nondescript car on his way to the Soviet embassy while his body double rides through the city’s streets in a presidential motorcade. From there, the authors flash backward, recounting the attack on Pearl Harbor; Allied assassinations of enemy leaders, including Japanese admiral Isoroku Yamamoto; and the infiltration of Iran by German spies including Franz Mayr, a sleeper agent who kept his affiliation with Nazi intelligence secret despite not getting any communications from his superiors for almost two years. Though Mayr was arrested by British intelligence, the German paratroopers he helped infiltrate into Iran remained, and when a Turkish valet assigned to the British ambassador to Iran leaked information about the top-secret summit, Nazi officials hatched a plan to use the commandos to assassinate the “Big Three”—or so Soviet intelligence officials claimed. Meltzer and Mensch acknowledge doubts about the plot’s actual existence yet convincingly argue that it was real, and provide necessary historical context while setting a brisk, thriller-like pace. WWII buffs will be enthralled. (Jan.)
From the Publisher
"This is a riveting sub-plot in the middle of the greatest cataclysm in human history — the Second World War. It's told with confidence and mastery and is what we all crave — a page turner!" -Ken Burns
“History is full of fascinating twists and near twists—and Meltzer and Mensch are masters of the tales of such moments.” —Jon Meacham, author The Soul of America: The Battle for our Better Angels, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, and American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House
"An absolute home run! You will never look at WWII the same way again." —Brad Thor, #1 bestselling author
“Nazis, body-doubles and WWII like you’ve never seen it. Here’s the assassination plot that nearly changed history! Reads like a thriller, but it’s all true. One of the best books of the year. Read it now!”
- Brian Kilmeade, bestselling author of The President and the Freedom Fighter
"A colorful trek through a labyrinth of twists and turns that could have changed history." -Kirkus
"thrilling account....A fascinating and potentially controversial book." -Booklist
"WWII buffs will be enthralled." -Publishers Weekly
DECEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
Scott Brick, with his rich baritone and impeccable pacing, delivers a commanding performance of a riveting, unconfirmed WWII incident. In 1943, Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin met in Iran to strategize their attempt to end the war. Authors Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch lay out the Nazi conspiracy to kill the “Big Three,” with action that moves from Tehran to Berlin, Washington, Moscow, London, and beyond. The story involves spies as well as the highest officials. Although it’s impossible to prove the existence of the plot, if it is true and had it been successful, it would have plunged Allied Forces into chaos. Brick’s expressive narration highlights every bit of intrigue, danger, and horror in this electrifying historical exploration. S.G. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2022-09-21
The Tehran Conference was a pivotal event of World War II, but there was danger lurking in the shadows.
This is a strange—and strangely entertaining—book. Meltzer and Mensch, whose careers have included TV documentaries, nonfiction, thrillers, and comic books, acknowledge that the events they recount may not have happened, and they have obviously filled in some blank spaces with reasonable speculation. The authors focus on a possible plot by the Nazis to assassinate Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin—the “Big Three,” as they were called by the media of the time—when they met for a crucial conference in Tehran in 1943 to plan strategy. Several chapters of the book deal with the problems of setting up the conference, especially Stalin’s insistence that it must be held in Tehran. The Nazis, who had a network of spies and sympathizers in the city as well as tapped communications line between Roosevelt and Churchill, were aware that the conference was going to happen and saw an opportunity to reshape the global order. There was a plan to send a squad of commandos into the Soviet Embassy, where the meetings were being held, through underground tunnels. But the NKVD, one of the Soviet intelligence agencies, discovered the plot and intercepted the group before they could do any damage. Much of this territory has already been covered, but Meltzer and Mensch dig up some new material. They admit that several researchers, pointing to contradictions in various firsthand accounts and a lack of documentation, have described the “plot” as a Soviet hoax. However, after sifting through the evidence, the authors conclude that there probably was a plot. As in the authors’ previous two co-authored books, The First Conspiracy and The Lincoln Conspiracy, the narrative sometimes wanders away from the main story, but it makes for interesting reading.
A colorful trek through a labyrinth of twists and turns that could have changed history.
