POINT OF HONOR

Halloran, a veteran agent for Britain's tough, top-secret Omega Section, is about to retire when he's given one last assignment, a point of honor: his old colleague, Jack Lane, has been found frozen to death in Wales, a supposed accident--and it's up to avenger Halloran to find out what really happened. (Murder, of course.) Was Jack in Wales for a ""routine base inspection"" or something more? Something more: he was investigating the ""accidental"" death of a young British CIA agent, and it seems she was killed by a rival American agent (N.S.A.). Were Jack and the CIA-woman murdered by the same person--the one who nearly kills Halloran with a car-bomb? Or was a more basic motive (adultery/jealousy) involved? What's the source of the apparent warfare between two US agencies? And who is the traitor within Halloran's own circle? Pretty standard questions--but Halloran's sleuthing/derring-do (which takes him to Zurich) is compact and quick; and the revelations surface at an agreeable pace, with only a small knot of convolutions to be untied at the close. A solid mini-thriller.