IRAN (The de'Conte Series, 6)
Nicholas Borelli, 2016
CreateSpace
314 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781523678792
Summary
Niccolo Cervantes de'Conti is an international attorney with global clientele based in New York's prestigious Rockefeller Center.
He represents clients in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia who do business with Iranian companies. The United States government would like an "introduction" to some of his clients’ Iranian counter-parties to effect covert foreign policy.
The U.S. spies know that Iran has cheated on the nuclear arms deal and has a stash of weapons grade uranium and plutonium hidden deep underground in the Iranian desert. Nick de'Conti will join a CIA-led team to effect U.S. covert operations.
Author Bio
• Birth—1951
• Where—New York City, New York, USA
• Education—B.M.E., Pratt Institute; M.B.A., Fordham University
• Currently—Wilton, Connecticut
Nicholas Borelli, a New England based author, has and continues to write the de'Conti series.
The novels currently include Let No Man Be My Albatross, A Convoluted Defense, The Machiavelli Imperative, FATA! The Act of the Vengeance, At Last Reconciled and IRAN. Mr. Borelli is writing two more novels: Dahij and A Special Prosecution.
These works feature the protagonist Niccolo Cervantes de'Conti. Mr. Borelli has conceived and developed a central character based on his knowledge of and first-hand experience with the gritty New York inner city of his youth. Nick de'Conti is an ethnic mixture of Basque and Southern Italian. He has a penchant for independent thought and action, and a passion with which he approaches everything in his life. He is a prominent lawyer, an aristocrat. The arc of his life is developed from the depths of his childhood poverty in East Harlem in the cruel, inner city streets of New York City to his unimagined success—albeit troubled, conflicted and, at times, ethically bereft.
These novels are edgy, raw, graphic and thought-provoking.
Although de'Conti is a former New York City prosecutor and United States Attorney, his hard life as a child in the inner city of East Harlem sometimes causes him to mete out as much street justice as he does the legal kind. He abhors the abuse of women, his own college-age daughter having been murdered at the hands of male predators. He will revert to instincts he developed as an inner city kid, even though he lives in a Fifth-Avenue penthouse on a high floor across from New York's Central Park. (From the author.)
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Book Reviews
In Borelli’s latest thriller, a New York lawyer gets caught up in a U.S. operation to neutralize weapons-grade material hidden in Iran.... It’s riveting stuff, though the finale includes a jarring personnel shift. Not the most likable protagonist but watching him confront danger may garner interest in his previous tales.
Kirkus Reviews
[A] page turner.... Didn't want to put it down!
Mary L., Amazon Customer Review
[R]ead this book. It's so plausibly realistic you cannot put it down.
Kindle User, Amazon Customer Review
[F]illed with intrigue.... Fast-paced enjoyable read.
Marsha N, Amazon Customer Review
Discussion Questions
1. The author obviously has technical knowledge of nuclear physics. Does the protagonist’s scientific proposals to President Obama seem plausible?
2. What do you think of Nick de’Conti’s relationship with Laleh Sassani?
3. Nick de’Conti has multiple woman in his life, including his wife Katherine Sheffield and Gabriella Desjardins, his African American beauty. Who do you think he will ultimately settle down with?
4. Nick de’Conti always reverts too his old, childhood friend in Harlem, Victor Armstrong, aka The Pig. Why do you think he relies on him so much?
5. How does this book’s premise compare to what is actually taking place between Iran and the United States on the nuclear front?
6. Do you think this world view given by the author is possible?
7. Do you like President Obama’s demeanor better in real life or the novel?
8. Do Nick de’Conti and President Obama have a good relationship?
9. What do you think of the book’s cover?
10. Would this novel make for a good feature film?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)