STEALTH

Yet another Stealth bomber thriller, this time in a first novel about a cynical American plan to send the Soviets on a strategic wild-goose chase. The Stealth bomber may never make it into production, but the concept has generated a whole subgenre of techno-thrillers. Here, the Stealth is something of an antihero, as a supersecret cabal of Highly Placed Government Figures plan to dupe the Soviets into thinking that the US has made terrific leaps in radar invisibility design--when the truth is that they have junked the whole concept, sticking instead to Star Wars and other satellite gizmos. The idea is for the poor Russkies to spend bazillions of their inflating rubles on impossible bomber technology. To pull off the trick, the Americans have recalled to service Michael Pretorious, who, after being captured and tortured in East Germany, has been spending his early retirement leading a blissful life in Devon, riding antique motorcycles and dating a ravishing, rich hotel-owner. Michael is to be disguised, pumped full of Stealth facts, and then dangled in front- of the Russians--who, in fact, nab him, and start picking his brains. But--what's this? His interrogator is the same evil sadist who interrogated him the last rime he was caught by the Reds, and he recognizes Michael as a fake. Michael will escape from the creepy, fake mental hospital to find himself pursued by both sides. . . Durham provides enough action to keep things going, but there's no new ground broken in this routine thriller.