I have read the book and recommend it highly. Like Gary, I started out skeptical, but was impressed by the nuanced portrait of the last Shah. Here is a good review of the book: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/oct/25/book-review-the-fall-of-heaven-the-pahlavis-and-th/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork

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: I am currently reading the new book, *The Fall
: of Heaven: The Pahlavis and the Final Days
: of Imperial Iran* by Andrew Scott Cooper
: (whose previous book *The Oil Kings* about
: the trilateral relations of the USA, Iran
: and Saudi Arabia in the 1970s is excellent).
: So far I am finding it very interesting. It
: is a revisionist view, sympathetic to the
: Shah and especially to Queen Farah (who was
: one of his sources), but also frank about
: the corruption of the regime and the Shah's
: personal failings.
:
: I was actually skeptical approaching the
: book because of the author's open
: perspective that the Shah's regime was not
: as dreadful as we in the West, both in the
: 1970s and since, have traditionally been let
: to believe, but he draws on a vast array of
: primary sources, including declassified CIA
: reports as well as media reports from
: throughout the Shah's reign, and a wide
: array of interviews, not only with the
: former Queen but with former President
: Banisadr, Zbigniew Brezhinski and members of
: both the royal and early revolutionary
: regime. Lots of his interviewees clearly
: have axes to grind, but it really does offer
: some fascinating insights.
: