Lyons is also the author—with his wife, the journalist Geneive Abdo—of Answering Only to God: Faith and Freedom in Twenty-First-Century Iran. The journalistic team of Lyons and Abdo moved to Iran in 1998 and spent three years there before they were forced to leave due to conflicts with the government and Islamic fundamentalists. During that time, they conducted numerous interviews with the Iranian people as the country and government were beginning a new reform movement. A Publishers Weekly contributor noted that the authors' interviews, however, did not cross all strata of Iranian society. The reviewer wrote: "Focusing mainly on the society's elite … the two are still able to develop a complex, nuanced view of Iran."