AVALANCHE EXPRESS

by Colin Forbes ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 22, 1977

Why transport a top Politburo Soviet defector (who's headed for Washington) from Milan to Amsterdam by train? Ostensibly, because a European blizzard has blitzed all nearer airports, but really became suspense story trains (The Lady Vanishes, Orient Express) provide maximum vulnerability, spooky corridors, and bushels of danger en route. So the ""Sparta Ring""--an Anglo-American team working directly for Joseph Moynihan (""the most anti-Communist President since the Russian Revolution"")--decides to stash General Sergei Marenkov in a private car on the Atlantic Express, where he'll presumably be safe from Colonel Igor Sharpinsky, who has slipped into Switzerland incognito. Sharpinsky's men, aided by a pack of terrorists ("". . . most terrorist organizations operating in the West were financed--and often armed--by the Soviet KGB and GRU""), try everything--triggering an Alpine avalanche, blowing up a Dutch bridge, disguising themselves as porters--but failing-in-love Britishers Harry Wargarve and Elsa Lang use their continental allies and their helicopter (riding on the back of the train) for a series of last-second escapes. And, as a bonus, European security chiefs, revolting ""against their indecisive politicians,"" have the opportunity to pick up the enemy agents who surface in the Italy-to-Holland confrontations. This British bestseller is gung-ho cloak-and-dogma of the pre-le CarrÉ, anti-dÉtente, Colin Forbes school (The Stone Leopard, 1976)--episodic, extroverted fun if you're not in the market for flesh, blood, or plausibility.

Pub Date: Aug. 22, 1977

ISBN: 1850897107

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1977

Categories: FICTION