TROTSKY'S RUN

It's the near future, and Moscow-dweller Kim Philby--remember him?--sneaks a two-part message to the CIA: a) he wants to defect back to the West; and b) US presidential candidate Derek Townes is a KGB mole! Should the CIA believe this? Or is the Philby message a KGB trick of some kind? That's the question for top CIA desk-man Ara Schott, who--with major assistance from ruthless field-agent James Burlane--goes to the Black Sea to arrange for the rescue of Philby from Yalta. But this nautical caper goes awry: sea-going KGB agents appear (mysteriously tipped-off) to repossess Philby. And, as election day approaches, Schott continues to be unsure about the Townes-is-a-mole story--especially when he interviews Mrs. Townes. . . and winds up in bed with her. Eventually, however, after breaking into the FBI computer-files (blowing up a building in the process), Schott and Burlane track down the evidence they've been looking for: a tape of Townes under hypnosis. Is Townes a KGB agent, then? Yes indeed. But the tape also reveals that Townes is now thoroughly bonkers: he's a split personality, half of which is. . . none other than Leon Trotsky! So Townes must be eliminated before he becomes President--and both Russia and China are eager to help the CIA arrange for a quiet assassination. . . . Tongue-in-cheek espionage, less giddily inventive than Hoyt's The Manna Enzyme and marred by gratuitous crudeness--but quick, easy reading for fans of light, offbeat spy-suspense.