Written like a thriller, NIGHT OF THE ASSASSINS brings its world-spanning cast of characters to Tehran in November 1943, where Churchill, Stalin and FDR have agreed to meet for the first time. The city itself, filled with German spies, Russian militia and locals who are ready to switch sides with each new bribe (some paid in counterfeit currency), becomes a colorful backdrop to this remarkable tale.

Howard Blum, a prolific author and meticulous researcher who was able to access recently opened archives, focuses on a few key players: Nazi intelligence officer Walter Schellenberg, who conceives the assassination plot code-named Operation Long Jump; Otto Skorzeny, who daringly rescued Mussolini from house arrest and now wants to burnish his legend; Rudolf von Holten-Pflug, the quick-thinking commander of six surviving assassins intent on bombing the heads of state; and FDR’s top Secret Service agent, Mike Reilly.

"Written like a thriller, NIGHT OF THE ASSASSINS...has enough twists, turns and colorful personalities to make it a worthy and entertaining read."

The early chapters set up the deadly plot, which was hatched as a way to force the Allies to the bargaining table at the point where the war seemed to be tipping inexorably their way. What was missing was a clear idea of where the meeting with the three heads of state would take place. But when a valet to the UK ambassador to Turkey offers valuable papers in return for a huge sum of money, Schellenberg puts his ambitious plan into action. It involves separate teams of parachutists, 50 in all, landing outside Tehran and making their way to the Russian embassy, where FDR is staying as a guest of Stalin.

With the outcome already known, Blum builds tension by revealing the instances when the Nazis almost had a clear shot at their quarry. In one, the Russians apprehend a group of assassins just before Churchill’s birthday party, when the original hit was planned. A group of youths, headed by 19-year-old Gevork Vartanian, notices some suspicious-looking soldiers with camels in tow (their means of transportation after landing in the desert) and alerts his Russian contact. Another involves Mike Reilly, who stationed men along the viaducts that ran from the mountains, thereby cutting off a path for the assassins that would have led directly into the Soviet compound. And on Roosevelt’s final evening in Tehran, Reilly has a last-minute stroke of inspiration about the motorcade’s routing that brings months of planning on both sides to a shattering conclusion.

While at times the writing is overly breathless, this tale has enough twists, turns and colorful personalities to make it a worthy and entertaining read.