"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...