Persian Betrayal

Author: Terry Brennan
Genre: Mystery/Suspense
Series: Empires of Armageddon #2
Release Date: July 28, 2020

How much can Brian Mullaney risk to serve God and save lives--without losing his own?

DSS Regional Security Officer Brian Mullaney has been tasked with an incredibly dangerous mission. When a synagogue in Jerusalem is destroyed by an explosion, burying the second key prophecy Mullaney is hunting--and the deadly box that protects it--the answers he desperately needs are also crushed. How can he discover the meaning of the centuries-old prophecy now? Why are he and the ambassador he's assigned to protect being targeted? And is there any way this lone man can thwart a nuclear arms race between three ascendant empires of the past?

An otherworldly servant of evil known only as the Turk is maneuvering all three nations into an intricate dance designed to undermine prophecy about the end times. And he won't let Mullaney or anyone else get in his way.

Wounded in a bloody shoot-out, pressured by his wife to come home, and mourning the death of his best friend, Mullaney doesn't need a powerful enemy. Who is he to save the Ishmael Covenant, the treaty promising peace in the Middle East? Despite angelic intervention, Mullaney wants nothing to do with his final assignment. But without him, evil will win the ultimate struggle . . . and humankind will have no hope left.

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Reviewer: Martha Robinson

I was not familiar with this author before reading Persian Betrayal, but it reminded me of Joel Rosenburg's The Third Target (a JB Collins novel) and Frank Perretti's This Present Darkness.

Persian Betrayal is exciting and fast-paced. In the opening scene, explosions demolish the Hurva Synagogue in Jerusalem, killing many. One fleeing rabbi, Chaim Yavod, carries a metal box inscribed by a long-dead rabbi Vilna Gaon and a translation of his second prophecy. Yavod dies a horrible death before he can reach safety.

The setting moves quickly from Old Jerusalem to Tel Aviv and shifts back and forth to other Middle Eastern cities—Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Ankara, Turkey; etc.—as well as Washington, DC.

As head of the Diplomatic Security Service in Jerusalem, the main character, Brian Mullaney, is assigned to protect the US Ambassador to Israel, Joseph Atticus Cleveland. Other heads of government in Middle Eastern countries, including Jordan, Iraq, and Turkey, are also characters. Supernatural beings—demons and angels—also make appearances in this novel.

Persian Betrayal is well-plotted, with action occurring almost simultaneously in several locations. In fact, all of the action occurs over a 3 day period. I was thankful for the inclusion of a map, as well as the inclusion of the date and time as each scene flips back and forth—for example, from Tel Aviv to Ankara and back again--almost minute by minute.

As a side note, in my personal devotional time, I had been reading portions of Ezekiel just days before reading a scene in which Ambassador Cleveland recounts Ezekiel's same prophetic portions.

If you are interested in what might happen during the "end-time," I highly recommend Persian Betrayal. Because this is the second book in the series, I would recommend reading Ishmael Covenant first. I will definitely watch for the publication of Ottoman Dominion, Book 3, to find out what happens next.


This book was provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group/Revell through Interviews & Reviews.

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