A TURN OF TRAITORS

by Palma Harcourt ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 30, 1982

A serviceable spy tale turning on a famed British traitor and his son. Charles Bigrel and David Grant of SIS are excited to learn that infamous traitor-defector Guy Carey-Ford, now dying in Moscow, long ago sired an illegitimate child--who has since been raised as Richard Lavery, son of a Brigadier. Will Richard--who's suitably shocked to learn his true paternity--go to Moscow and listen to his father's perhaps-crucial dying words? Well, no, he won't. Instead he breaks up with fiancÉe Emma and speeds off to Vienna--where he learns from the KGB that Emma has been kidnapped and is being held in Czechoslovakia: the KGB wants Richard to go to Moscow for the same reason as the SIS does! Doubly pressured, then, Richard does go to Moscow for his father's dying secret: ""Ignore one. Pay attention to two."" But before the KGB can get this message out of him, a Jewish underground team benevolently kidnaps Richard, helping him get out of Russia (the old coffin trick). And, back in London, Richard keeps his secret--until more KGB dirty work forces him to give SIS the deathbed message (which reveals Dad to have been super-hero, not super-traitor). Routine tangles--but reasonably entertaining.

Pub Date: March 30, 1982

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Scribners

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1982

Categories: FICTION