A HOODED CROW

Clever, clever Sir Kenneth Aubrey and tough, tough Patrick Hyde (The Last Raven, Wildcat, etc.) are again Britain's last defense against intense international embarrassment. This time out, they're up against Russia, South Africa, and--most dangerous of all--politics. Older, weaker, and out of the loop, Sir Kenneth is at first unavailable to the little collection of British intelligence specialists who, against orders from above, have nosed around the principals and products of Reid Davies, a high-tech manufacturing firm. Reid Davies's founder is a Thatcherian highflier who has been elevated to the top levels of government, where he is being groomed for Even Better Things. The nosy boys are onto something bigger than they can handle. Some very important Russians have a very long secret electronic-gadget shopping list: They want all the high-tech toys they can get from Reid Davies, and they want them now--even if it means endangering the industrial espionage network established by Sir Andrew Babbington, late of H.M. intelligence, now of the KGB. Even when bodies start to drop in central London, the brainless twits who have banished Sir Kenneth can't see that there is any danger. But Aubrey receives a note from, of all places, Namibia, that spurs the old cold warrior into action, including trips to Venice and Johannesburg. The younger, fitter, less cerebral Patrick Hyde does all the climbing and heavy lifting with a lot of panache. He's kept awfully busy heading off a shipment of nerve gas ordered by nasty South African white supremacists from new Eastern bloc capitalists who used to be plain old thugs. Much faster-moving and less thoughtful than the grand old spy stuff, but then so is England. The New World Disorder is nearly as entertaining as the old mess.