THE COLD WAR SWAP

While this is obviously in the wake of, it's a hush and hurry, cash and carry transaction about the attempt to exchange Padillo, an agent for the U.S. intelligence, for two homosexual defectors whose lapse would be exceedingly embarrassing so that it seems preferable to write off Padillo-- ""like a tax loss."" Padillo doesn't cotton to the idea; neither does his partner, McCorkle, in a classy saloon in Bonn, and the central intention of the story deals with the attempt to bring him back, over, or rather under, the wall. Much of it takes place in fast cars, planes, a barge, and a tunnel where East and West Berlin meet...... All in all Swap's a very fair deal-- whatever has been lifted from recent history has been reconverted in a reasonably lively fashion.