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A highly flammable thriller

The Power of Fire

Bob Mendes

On 16 August 1953 a revolt breaks out in Tehran. Darius Razdi, chancellor of the Shah of Persia, is forced to flee. He ends up in an Iranian convent, where the Jewish Sharon Stern is another guest. On his wedding night, Razdi fathers a son by his third wife and also rapes Sharon. She manages to escape and after nine days marries the fearless Zionist Samuel Hofman. Nine months later, she gives birth to her son Simon, without knowing who the father is.

When he has regained his position in Tehran, the hot-tempered Razdi, driven by a thirst for power, arrogance and religious fanaticism, goes in search of Simon. The boy has been living in hiding with his mother Sharon. Twenty-five years on, Razdi and Sharon meet again.

Mendes measures up to Ludlum and Clavell.
Haagsche Courant

Bob Mendes describes his crime novels as ‘faction thrillers’: he starts from factual events and then spins a fictitious web around them. ‘The Power of Fire’ is an accurate, well-researched depiction of the extreme political tensions in the Middle East in the twentieth century. Against this backdrop, the author not only portrays psychologically complex and above all human characters, but he also steers his story to a spectacular climax.

An adventure story, like one might expect from Frederick Forsyth
De Volkskrant
A thriller of international calibre
De Morgen