Whirlwind

L.J. Rouse was a freelance writer in Toronto.

The fifth in a collection of Asian sagas, that so far include Shogun, Tai-Pan, King Rat and Noble House, Whirlwind is the story of the perilous days in Iran between February 9, 1979 and March 4, 1979, when the Imam Khomeini displaced the Shah Mohammed Pahlavi from the Peacock Throne and drove him into an exile that would end with his death.

This is an account of the turmoil Iran was thrown into when the government changed hands; it is also a story about the fortunes of a British helicopter company secretly under the control of the Noble House of Hong Kong. The company’s assets, as well as its employees and their families, are in grave danger. If the owners simply leave the country, abandoning their Iranian-based possessions, the company will be ruined. Most of the helicopter pilots, for one reason or another, are unemployable by other companies, and are tied to the fate of the company. Only a last-ditch strategy, code-named Whirlwind, can save the company. Lives, property and pride are at stake, threatened by the fanatical followers of Khomeini, and by the machinations of Russian agents.

Although this is raw material, it is also a novel of almost interminable length; enough to try the patience of the most determined of readers.