ONE MAN RUNNING

“The high-priced help”—that is, the senior members of Her Majesty’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS)—are as aggressively alert as ever they were. Never mind that the Soviet Union’s defunct and the Cold War officially over; it’s turf that has to be protected these days: position, privilege, power. In behalf of the three p’s—a fourth, patriotism, has had its day—there’s no lie too deplorable, no trick too dirty. Enter superspy Peter Ashton, who suddenly, after long service, finds himself in a desperately exposed condition. SIS had temporarily sent Peter, his wife, and their two children underground to hide them from enemies. But, as Peter well understands, his avowed enemies may be less dangerous than his alleged friends and colleagues. When the safe, secret house the Ashtons were about to move into is blown up, their carefully created cover is destroyed along with it. Peter wants to know “which murderous lot is stalking me—the IRA, the Provisional IRA, the Continuity IRA, the Real IRA or the Irish National Liberation Army.” But no one will talk to him. The high-priced help has put out the word, and Peter discovers he’s not yet eligible to come in from the cold. That’s most unfortunate, since the other thing Peter wants to know is who in SIS is his own personal mole.

An old pro (The Honey Trap, 2001, etc.) proves again in his 30th novel what a dab hand he is at starting briskly and getting to the goal fast.