COVER STORY

by Colin Forbes ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1986

From veteran suspense-writer Forbes, a new effort that's an improvement over his last, the remarkably inept Terminal. Here. reliable reports have reached England that an American close to the highest levels of the government, code-named Adam Procane, is defecting to the Soviet Union; since the 1984 Presidential election is approaching. the Americans are particularly desperate to prevent this potential spy scandal, and the Russians are equally eager to facilitate Procane's entry into their country. British SIS investigator Tweed (last seen in Terminal) is given the job of finding and stopping Procane. Certain that Procane will leave Europe through Scandinavia, Tweed alerts his operatives in Sweden and Finland, while in Russia, one Karlov is assigned to bring Procane in, But a wrench has been thrown into the works: Tweed's superior has shown to reporter Bob Newman (also from Terminal) a film of the brutal murder of Newman's ex-wife. Newman soon determines the site of the killing--Tallinn, in Estonia--and Tweed fears this ""rogue elephant"" on the loose in the Procane theater at the very time that several high-ranking Americans are drifting into Stockholm and Helsinki--any one of whom could be Procane. The plot wriggles about as Tweed spins his webs, and as Newman goes to Estonia--until a final twist in which the Russians are foiled again. Not top-flight suspense: a repetitive style and occasional lapses in plot credibility and character motivation don't help, and yet, all in all, a reasonably engaging, agreeably complicated spy story.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1986

Categories: FICTION