TALLEY'S TRUTH

by Philip Ross ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1987

Czechoslovakian and American spies try to confuse each other to death or madness as they swap hostages and lies in and around Vienna. In still one more Do-we-have-a-mole-in-our-spyworks-or-do-we-just-think-we-have-a-mole-because-they-say-we-do spy thriller, the befuddled reader is asked to follow Tom Talley, ex-CIA operative, and his professor girlfriend as Talley reluctantly sneaks his way back and forth across the Austro-Czech border in search of the truth. Or, at least, the truth as he has been told it by the CIA, which, as all experienced thriller readers know, hasn't told a straight story to anyone since 1948. It appears that the CIA has had to shoot to bloody death one of their own agents who has been spying for the Czechs, and now they need to know whether the Czechs believed the stuff the traitorous agent was shipping them, or whether they know that some of it was disinformation, slipped in after the CIA wised up. Or maybe that's not what they want. Maybe what they want is to make the Czechs believe what they know not to be true because they have their own mole placed on the other side. Or maybe they don't. Whatever ii is all these schemers want, it's gotten Talley tossed into the Czech pokey, where he may or may not be putty in the hands of the wily Colonel Suk (sic). Not only is there no one to like here, but the confusion in the plot gets out of control and is, eventually, exhausting. From the author of Hovey's Deception (1986), etc.

Pub Date: June 15, 1987

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Tor--dist. by St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1987

Categories: FICTION