EYES TO DECEIT
by Gabriel Valjan
February 23 – March 20, 2026 Virtual Book Tour
Synopsis:
THE COMPANY FILES: 4
Espionage is easy. Living with it isn’t.
The Company named it Operation Ajax. MI6 labeled it Boot. History would call it a coup.
Walker calls it the beginning of the end.
1953. The Company is orchestrating the overthrow of Iran’s elected leader—an operation cloaked in propaganda and alliances. In Rome, Walker is stationed with Leslie, former M16 and now Company agent, and tasked to coordinate efforts between the US and UK. But when resources on the ground become a liability, Walker is forced to make a difficult decision—one that threatens to unravel what’s left of his conscience.
As the coup’s first attempt crumbles and Washington grows desperate, old loyalties shift. Allen Dulles wants results. Kim Roosevelt wants glory. Darbyshire feels left out. And Walker begins to suspect he’s not there to help win the Cold War, but to prove he can stomach it.
From Missouri to Rome to the Catskills to Tehran, EYES TO DECEIT explores postwar American idealism—and the spies who find themselves too loyal, too late, to walk away clean.
For readers of le Carré, Furst, Kanon, and Vidich this is espionage at its most personal—and most perilous.
Praise for EYES TO DECEIT:
“A remarkable, fly-on-the-wall story of Cold War realpolitik, Gabriel Valjan’s EYES TO DECEIT careens from Rockefeller Center to a Catskill resort to Rome and Tehran, giving readers a front-row seat to the plotting of the 1953 CIA and MI6 overthrow of the Iranian government. With noteworthy cameos from the famous, the powerful, and the ruthless, EYES TO DECEIT is intelligent, high-stakes intrigue at its best.”
~ James W. Ziskin, Author of the Anthony, Barry, and Macavity award-winning Ellie Stone mysteries
“The burdens of history and secrecy weigh heavily, gracing this excellent historical espionage novel with a gritty, nuanced, and ominous sensibility where betrayal is always possible. Even that of your own soul.”
~ James R. Benn, author of the Billy Boyle WWII mystery series
Whispers and Consequences: Gabriel Valjan on the Moral Stakes Behind the 1953 Iran Coup
EYES TO DECEIT unfolds around the 1953 coup in Iran and spans locations from Missouri and the Catskills to Rome and Tehran.What drew you to this particular moment in history, and how did you balance the factual record of Operation Ajax with the imagined lives and moral struggles of your characters?
1953 wasn’t just another Cold War episode—it was the year a democratically elected government in Iran was overthrown in the name of American interests. Operation Ajax lit a fuse that would explode decades later in the 1979 hostage crisis, reshape U.S. foreign policy, and influence presidential politics in ways still felt today. In Walker’s world—Missouri, New York, Rome—the decisions made in quiet rooms reverberate like shockwaves. Loyalty, conscience, and survival are tested in every whispered order, every compromised alliance. EYES TO DECEIT lives in the shadows, asking: what do we accept when power moves in secret, in our name—and can we face the consequences of the world we’ve helped create?
Walker begins to suspect he’s not in Rome to help win the Cold War, but to prove he can stomach it.
How did you approach writing his internal conflict and conscience, and did your view of him change as you drafted and revised the novel?
Walker learns quickly that the mission isn’t about victory—it’s about endurance. His struggle isn’t Good versus Evil, but how far he can bend before he breaks. Writing him meant stripping away rationalizations until what remained was the raw measure of his conscience—and the quiet cost of surviving a world where loyalty, ambition, and survival rarely align.
The book has been described as “intelligent, high-stakes intrigue” with a gritty, ominous sensibility where betrayal is always possible, even of one’s own soul.
How do you keep the tension personal and emotional, rather than purely geopolitical, when writing classic spy fiction like this?
The Cold War sets the stage, but the story’s real tension is on the skin. For Walker, every choice is a test: who to trust, how far to bend, what he can survive without losing himself. Betrayal isn’t always from the enemy; sometimes it’s the reflection in the mirror. By keeping the pressure personal, espionage feels immediate, dangerous—like how a whisper in the wrong ear could change everything.
EYES TO DECEIT is the fourth book in The Company Files and is recommended for readers of le Carré, Furst, Kanon, and Vidich. (WOW! BTW)
What do you see as uniquely “Gabriel Valjan” about this book—either in voice, structure, or theme—that distinguishes it within the tradition of historical espionage fiction?
What I hope is uniquely “Gabriel Valjan” in Eyes to Deceit is the way I treat history not as a plot engine, but as a moral weather system. I’m not litigating history; I’m interrogating agency—how people respond, compromise, or fracture when confronted with impossible choices.
This is a subtractive approach: no nostalgia. No heroics for their own sake. The tension comes from the cognitive dissonance between personal bonds, duty, and the cold arithmetic of reality, and I’m brutally honest about manipulation—theirs, ours, sometimes my own. Operation Ajax isn’t an aberration; it’s a spark that illuminates everything that follows in postwar American international policy. Walker’s struggle is surviving it all without losing himself entirely. That interplay—conscience versus survival, personal stakes against a geopolitical shadow—is what gives the novel its voice, structure, and edge in the tradition of historical espionage fiction.
Book Details:
Genre: Literary Noir, Historical Fiction, Classic Spy Fiction
Published by: Level Best Books
Publication Date: November 4, 2025
Number of Pages: 212 pages, Paperback
ISBN: 9798898200510, Paperback
Series: The Company Files, Book 4
Book Links: Amazon | Kindle | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads
The Company Files
 The Good ManAmazon | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads | BookBub |
 The Naming GameAmazon | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads | BookBub |
 The Devil’s MusicAmazon | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads | BookBub |
Read an excerpt:
Tania moved fast, her shoes clicked sharply on the floor. She fished a five-dollar bill from her clutch and approached a housekeeper in the hallway.
“A roll of toilet paper, and in a discreet bag, please.”
The woman hesitated, but Tania’s eyes were steady, unblinking. She slid the bill into the woman’s shoulder strap with practiced ease.
“Take it,” Tania said softly. “In case someone accuses you of theft.”
The woman nodded.
Ruth led the way. Tania followed, her mind already ahead, calculating the next move. In the bathroom, she locked the door and leaned against the wall. She heard Judith’s groans.
“It’s me, Judy.”
“Tania?” Her voice was barely a whisper.
The air was thick with sweat and nausea, sharp like unchanged hospital linens. Tania handed Ruth the roll of paper and a small perfume atomizer.
“Tell her it’s from London. She’ll like it.”
Ruth nodded and slipped into the stall.
Tania stepped back into the hallway, then stopped. A girl sick and humiliated in a stall behind her. She caught her reflection in a wall sconce—lipstick fine, hair in place, eyes clear.
Decide now.
This wasn’t strategy. She wasn’t gaining leverage. And still, her feet moved.
When she returned, Judith was pale, shaken, but upright. Tania offered her the drink.
“Peppermint helps nausea,” she said.
Judith studied her. “I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing.”
“There’s no game,” Tania said. “You have to believe me.”
Judith hesitated. “You and your uncle seem awfully interested in my father.”
Tania unwrapped a mint. “It’s a secret,” she said. “Just not the kind you think.”
She leaned in. “The government wants something your father owns or controls. Sheldon’s the go-between.”
Judith stared at her. “That sounds shady.”
“It might be.”
Judith exhaled. “They spiked my drink. Esther and those girls. Laxatives.”
Tania nodded. “Brutal.”
Silence settled between them.
Tania met her eyes.
“Want revenge?”
Judith smiled.
And didn’t say no.
***
Excerpt from Eyes to Deceit: The Company Files by Gabriel Valjan. Copyright 2025 by Gabriel Valjan. Reproduced with permission from Gabriel Valjan. All rights reserved.
Author Bio:
Gabriel Valjan is the author of The Company Files, and the Shane Cleary Mysteries with Level Best Books. He has been nominated for the Agatha, Anthony, Derringer, and Silver Falchion awards. He received the 2021 Macavity Award for Best Short Story, and the Shamus Award for Best PI in 2023. Gabriel is a member of the Historical Novel Society, ITW, MWA, and Sisters in Crime. He lives in Boston and answers to a tuxedo cat named Munchkin.
Catch Up With Gabriel Valjan:
GabrielValjan.com
Amazon Author Profile
Goodreads
BookBub – @gvaljan
Instagram – @gabrielvaljan
BlueSky – @gvaljan.bsky.social
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