ASSASSINATION DAY

The prolific Egleton pits his Brit superspy against a blur of assorted enemies.

Inevitably, there’s your basic den of fanatical terrorists, but then the list turns motley. Included are the CIA, the FBI, other acronymic entities on both sides of the pond, a vengeful former girlfriend, an ambitious literary opportunist, and, of course, that never-ending supply of bureaucratic back-biters, Peter Ashton's colleagues in Her Majesty’s Secret Intelligence Service. A storm is gathering. Ashton (Cry Havoc, 2003, etc.) first encounters it in the form of a manuscript reputedly written by a onetime British intelligence officer. Supposedly, the material in it is explosive, possibly detrimental to SIS and, by extension, to the nation itself. The author is dead, and so, in short order, are two more who knew of the manuscript’s existence. Currently, it’s in the hands of a young American woman who claims to be a literary agent, a lie. So who is she? Ashton assigns Will Landon, one of his best, to investigate, an effort somewhat impeded by dazzling legs and Landon’s susceptibility. In the meantime, Ashton finds himself squaring off against Jill Sheridan, his ex-fiancée, who was once on the fast track to becoming SIS’s first female Director General until derailed by a series of tactical errors—her own, though she’s never stopped blaming Ashton for them. Now a flurry of additional questions: Is the manuscript for real? If so, how does Jill connect to it? More urgently, how does she connect to a certain Telal Asir, paymaster for Islamic Jihad? Enough: Ashton, never a fan of “the Micawber approach to life,” decides it’s time to step up to proactivity.

The Ashton step seems a bit less springy here. Or maybe it’s just that the blur of enemies makes it hard for the reader to work up a really good, page-turning hate.