CHINESE CHECKERS

In an espionage thriller from the author of Untitled, Nude (not reviewed), Karen Kalderian Matthews remains so self-absorbed after a year of marriage that she fails to realize that Peter (her handsome, athletic husband) is a roving operative for the CIA, not an up-and-coming insurance executive. Once the Armenian-American princess learns her man is off on a mission, not a business trip, she follows him to Communist China, where he's tracking down rumors that an outcast scientist has developed a sustainable, environment- friendly method of generating electrical energy. More hindrance than help to her mate in his efforts to ensure that the West gets first crack at what could prove breakthrough technology, Karen wanders about the countryside, commenting harshly on the cuisine, life style, and political attitudes of the locals. Before our heroine and her loved one can return to the Occident (and decent bathrooms), however, they'll have to survive a slapstick showdown with minions of the Red regime in an eel-processing plant. An inanely plotted, gracelessly recounted yarn with a decidedly disagreeable protagonist.