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Razi Crossing

by Tom Burchill

195 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #05-2164; ISBN 1-4120-7269-7; US$16.95, C$19.49, EUR13.92, £9.75

Two American college kids jailed in Iran for smuggling cars find themselves trapped as the Iranian Revolution explodes all around them. A true story of a perilous escape to freedom.

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About the Book

About the Author

Excerpts

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About the Book

In the summer of 1978, John Burchill was a bored and broke college dropout trying to survive in Munich, Germany. Desperate for money and hungry for adventure, John and his sidekick Pat Tiahrt decide to take an ill-advised job running used cars to Iran. Knowing full well that they were taking part in an illegal and potentially risky venture, they defied their parent's wishes and headed to Iran.

On the dangerous journey to Iran, John and Pat find plenty of adventure and excitement until they are apprehended by Iranian authorities on their way home. At Razi Crossing, they make a most fateful mistake that lands them in prison for what could be upwards of five years of incarceration.

In the ensuing months, the reality of incarceration quickly becomes a secondary concern as the full fury of Iranian revolution soon exploded all around them. Ironically, the prison walls provide an unexpected sanctuary amidst the chaos raging outside. That is, until one day when a prison riot led to a fire, and ultimately, the mass breakout of 2,000 inmates.

John and Pat join the escaping hoards and run for their lives into the night. They find safe harbor at the American consulate in Tabriz, but their refuge there was short-lived. In a matter of days, vigilante gunmen storm the consulate in a hail of machinegun fire, taking everyone including the American Consul captive. John and nine others who survived the violent take-over now found themselves accused of being CIA spies!

At the Revolutionary headquarters, the Americans were paraded in front of an angry mob chanting "Death to America, death to CIA." To John, it seemed there was no way out as they faced almost certain execution at the hands of an angry mob. Only with the courageous intervention of the American consul and some miraculous luck, they not only avoided execution as spies, but instead became accidental heroes of the revolution!

Even after being exonerated and hailed as brothers of the revolution, their long journey home was still fraught with danger and unexpected pitfalls. Civil order had broken down in the nation and armed radical Islamists everywhere thirsted for American blood. In the end, it would take not just a miracle, but many more miracles to bring John and Pat home safely.

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About the Author

Born in Japan in 1959 to an American Father and a Japanese mother, Tom Burchill grew up in multiple cultures from the Far East to the United States and Europe. After graduating from High School in Frankfurt, Germany, he attended the University of Maryland in Munich, Germany. In 1981, Tom returned to the U.S. to pursue a career in film and television in Los Angeles. In 1984, Tom moved to Silicon Valley where over the next four years, Tom bounced between teaching and sales until he found his calling in the High Tech industry. Tom spent the next 13 years at Intel Corporation where he developed and ran Intel's corporate TV studio and broadcast/webcast network. Today Tom is semi-retired and lives in Vancouver, Washington with his wife Jeannie and son Alex. Tom's brother John lives in St. George, Utah where he is the manager of the Barnes and Noble bookstore.

razicrossing@comcast.net

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Excerpts

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Catalogue Information

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