THE PYTHON PROJECT

Canning, like many others including Deighton, is beginning to show signs of occupational stress: instead of the centralizing activity of earlier books, his plot proliferates here from one set-up situation to another reader put-down on an international tripticket from London to Libya, starting with the theft (by her brother) of rich Gloria Stankowski's python bracelet to the discovery of other frauds including that of her brother's body in a vague state of chemical preservation. . . . Instamatic action but it's hard to get the picture.