The Tana Standish psychic
spy series - #2 The Tehran Text
Tana
Standish, a child-survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto, was adopted by a
British naval lieutenant and in 1965 joined the British Secret Intelligence
Service. She is a psychic with a photographic memory. Each adventure begins
with the passing of a collection of papers and manuscripts to the author (Nik
Morton) by one of her secret service associates. He then writes down her
experiences.
The first was The
Prague Papers (Czechoslovakia, 1975), and this is followed by The Tehran Text (Iran, 1978), [both of
which were previously published (2008 & 2009 respectively), though the
latter received minimal exposure as the collapse of the publisher occurred
almost at the same time as its release. Both are now available as Crooked Cat
e-books.
At least two more adventures are planned: The Khyber Chronicle – (Afghanistan, 1979/80), a
work-in-progress, and The Caldera Cryptogram (Argentina, Falklands,
1982).
Snippets
from 6 Amazon reviews of The Tehran Text follow,
with sections excised to avoid too much repetition.
‘Playing mind games…’
The book opens in fine dramatic style, with an assassination
and more than a hint of psychic powers which quickly dominate the story of Tana
Standish and her action-packed adventures in the Middle East. The intricacies
of the plot unfold in masterful manner and I don't want to put the book down as
Standish wriggles out of one situation into another while playing mind games
and trying to rescue her friends. – Amazon review, February, 2016
‘Not for the faint-hearted…’
… overall it was a fabulous and smartly paced read... Tana
definitely leads an exciting life as a British agent extraordinaire, her
psychic abilities making her even more successful than normal… The double life
she leads under cover is not for the faint-hearted and it was a sad read when
some of her locally based activist friends meet their grisly end. Spies and
double agents abound in the novel, many with almost comparable psychic
abilities to Tana, which make life very deadly at times for her and her fellow
British agents. I certainly wouldn’t want to meet the Spetsnaz female agent
Aksakov in real life but I am looking forward to reading more of the empathetic
Yakunin… – Amazon UK, November 2015
‘Characters who are so
alive…’
There are not too many books that stay with you long after
you finish reading them, not too many characters who are so alive it seems like
you recently met them. And so it is with Tana Standish, the psychic spy created
by Nik Morton in this page-turning thriller.
We travel to Iran,
Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and England and meet a variety of brilliantly portrayed
characters - both chillingly cruel and highly talented, some of them torturers,
others who control a team of remote viewers, others traditional British MI6
characters. The locations are so finely drawn we can almost reach and touch
them, the atmospheres so vivid that we can shut our eyes and sense ourselves
there. - Maureen Moss, travel journalist, August 2010
‘Scary women in droves’
Nik Morton places the very fanciable Tana's missions for the British
Intelligence Service in Iran in 1978 but his narrative and prose are
nonetheless what we expect of espionage/thriller writers in the 21st Century. Male
readers may find themselves enchanted by the lovely Tana, whom the author
presents as very believable in his revelations from `deep throat' MI6 mole Alan
Swann, but do bear in mind that she's probably drawing a civil service pension
now so I would suggest that, like me, they forget the erotic fantasies. In any
case, not only can Tana kick arse very well indeed, she's also psychic. Do you
really want a relationship with an older woman who can not only read your
thoughts but can also throw you around the room for having them?
In addition to the nasty males
running the Middle East terrorist groups, the book has scary women in droves,
with deadly female Spetsnaz operative Aksakov out to abduct our Tana, whose
assistance from Kazakhstan-based friendly psychic Yakunin is blunted by an
unfriendly psychic in a strategic battle of the minds. But masterful Morton
handles them all very nicely and serves up a ripping read with a plot clever
enough to stand up with the best of them. - Review in Round Town News by author Danny
Collins, May 2010
‘Compulsive spy novel’
For those who like their plots laid out skilfully and with
painstaking research, Nik Morton's latest Tana Standish thriller, The Tehran Text is where you should be. When
she knows her friends are in danger, Tana pits her physical skills against evil
adversaries to secure their freedom. But because of Tana's phenomenal psychic
ability, she is constantly under threat from the mind games of the Soviets.
Although Tana has an ally in the Soviet camp, Yakunin, he cannot show his hand
as he battles to warn Tana of the threats against her. While Tana pits her wits
against the evil agents of the Shah's secret police, she is hounded by the
brilliant, but deadly Spetsnaz agent, Aksakov… Tana Standish stands out as a
heroine worthy of the pages of this compulsive spy novel. - Michael Parker,
author, April 2010
‘Psychological gifts
beyond the normal’
Thriller number two in the series of Tana Standish, English
agent with psychological gifts beyond the normal. Many have read the book or
seen the movie based on Richard Condon's The
Manchurian Candidate. An eerie story about brainwashing of an American
soldier during the Korean War days. Here, we have such a modern tale where Tana
has the ability of the mind to see things at enormous distances... While she
goes against an Islamic revolution and the old Ayatolla Komenih figures now and
then, Tana's worst opponent is the female sadist and Spetsnaz agent Aksakov. - Review
by Iwan Morelius in the Swedish online magazine LÄST OCH HÖRT I HÄNGMATTAN,
translated, May 2010
My thanks to all of the above reviewers!
You can purchase
The Tehran Text from any one of the international Amazon
sites
here
The Tehran Text - e-book published by Crooked Cat Publishing
The Blurb
The tense and
explosive sequel to The Prague Papers
1978. Iran is in ferment and the British Intelligence Service wants Tana Standish’s
assessment. It appears that CIA agents are painting too rosy a picture, perhaps
because they’re colluding with the state torturers…
Allegiances and loyalties are strained as Tana’s mission becomes deadly and
personal. Old friends are snatched, tortured and killed by SAVAK, the Shah’s
secret police. She has to use all her skills as a secret agent and psychic to
stay one step ahead of the oppressors and traitors.
As the country stumbles towards the Islamic Revolution, the Shah’s grip on
power weakens. There’s real concern for the MI6 listening post near the Afghan
border. Only Tana Standish is available to investigate; yet it’s possible she
could be walking into a trap, as the deadly female Spetsnaz fighter Aksakov has
been sent to abduct Tana.
Meanwhile, in Kazakhstan, the sympathetic Yakunin, the psychic spy tracking
Tana, is being sidelined by a killer psychic, capable of weakening Tana at the
critical moment in combat with Aksakov. Can Yakunin save Tana without being
discovered?
In the troubled streets of Iran’s ancient cities and amidst the frozen wastes
on the Afghan border, Tana makes new friends and new enemies…
