THE COTSWOLD MISTRESS

Rich, beautiful British secret agent Lady Jane Hildreth (Cotswold Murders, etc.) flips aimlessly through this new assignment. Her enigmatic Chief has asked her to investigate American Marvin Lockhart, a man so rich he builds warplanes for a hobby. He's now trying, at the end of the cold war, to sell one to the Royal Air Force. The plane has been blown up on the testing field, and the two engineers assigned to evaluate it have died. They'll undoubtedly be added to the supersecret Star War Deaths file—a copy of which is ardently desired by Defense Ministry biggie Sir Anthony Dean, who may or may not head a group of homosexually oriented spies. Then there's Lucille Fraser, Lockhart's mistress whose favors range wide—possibly as far as Libya. Lady Jane's affair with Simon Carey, who works in Hong Kong, is as unresolved as everything else in this jumble. A few story ideas (one or two of them unhackneyed) in search of an author who can provide tension, texture, and coherence. All they've found here is a glossy surface.