Carmon, Haggai 1944–

PERSONAL: Born November 5, 1944, in Tel Aviv, Israel; immigrated to U.S., 1985; son of Yehiel and Ida Carmon; married Rakeffet Avissara, March 7, 1978; children: Ittai, Dria, Irin, Yahel. Education: Tel Aviv University, B.A., 1969, LL.B., 1981; St. John's University, M.A., 1987.

ADDRESSES: Office—Carmon & Carmon, 767 3rd Ave., 24th Fl., New York, NY 10017. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Carmon & Co., New York, NY, and Israel, partner, 1983–; Carmon & Carmon, New York, NY, partner. Advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, 1981–84; U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC, representative in Israeli litigation, 1985–; adviser to federal agencies on asset recovery and intelligence gathering outside United States; legal counsel to U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv. Military service: Israeli Air Force, served three years.

MEMBER: Israel-American Chamber of Commerce and Industry (vice president; member of board of directors, 1979–85), American Bar Association, Association of Trial Lawyers of America, New York State Bar Association.

AWARDS, HONORS: Honorary chief delegate to United States, Israeli Labor Party, 1985–87.

WRITINGS:

Zehut Meshuleshet, Yedi'ot Aharonot (Tel Aviv, Israel), 2003, published as Triple Identity (novel), Steerforth Press (Hanover, NH), 2005.

Contributor to professional journals.

SIDELIGHTS: As an attorney who works closely with both the U.S. government and the government of Israel on complex legal disputes, Haggai Carmon is no stranger to international intrigue. Nor to danger; he was brutally stabbed and almost killed outside a European bank while on a secret mission, and that incident became the inspiration for his first novel, Triple Identity. Like Carmon, protagonist Dan Gordon undertakes assignments to retrieve stolen assets for federal government agencies. On one such assignment, he is sent to track down Raymond DeLouise, suspected of stealing ninety million dollars, DeLouise also turns out to be Dov Peled and Bruno Popescu, each with a different nationality. When DeLouise is found dead, Gordon is forced to unravel his "triple identity," a search that soon puts him on the trail of a possible Iranian plot to acquire nuclear weapons. The result is an espionage story with the added twist that the protagonist may be mistaken about Iran's intentions. For a Kirkus Reviews contributor, the storytelling is marred by "Dan's compulsion to tiresome exposition, often by interjecting bromides from his Mossad trainers into potentially suspenseful scenes." A Publishers Weekly reviewer also found "occasionally stiff or silly writing," but commended the author's "ear for high-level intelligence deception."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2005, review of Triple Identity, p. 491.

Publishers Weekly, May 30, 2005, review of Triple Identity, p. 36.

ONLINE

Jewish.com, http://jewish.com/ (July 19, 2005), Alana B. Elias Kornfeld, "Attorney Puts Experience to Work in Writing Thriller about Israeli Agent."

Triple Identity Web site, http://www.tripleidentity.com/ (September 12, 2005).