Review by Kirkus Book Review
Espionage, then counterespionage, and now. . . counter-counterespionage""-- which means, since Hynd (The Sandler Inquiry) still hasn't quite gotten the knack of presenting a complex plot lucidly, that only dogged readers will be around for the neat twist that waits at the end of this U.S./Russia/China spy triangle. CIA man Lassiter of London is sure that there's a traitor in his European system when a Russian spy flees with suspiciously good timing--leaving behind, however, six silicon chips from a U.S. missile guidance system. Lassiter summons old Agency buddy Bill Mason, a CIA fall-guy, but by the time that bitter Bill arrives to help out, Lassiter has been pushed off a building. Bill's attempt to avenge his friend by identifying the traitor is simplified when a British agent disappears-- and when an Arab-Russian knot of Paris-based operatives offers to exchange the traitor for those silicon chips (which Bill retrieved from inside Lassiter's wristwatch). But is this all a Chinese set-up--double-double-cross style? And what about those chips and the suicide of the man back in America who designed them? (Bill visits and actively consoles the suicide's widow as part of his research.) When-- if--you reach Hynd's snazzy epilogue, you'll wonder why he couldn't have designed a less murky scenario to lead us to his final revelation--a denouement which explains a lot, but not enough to dispel all vestiges of that counter-counterespionage migraine. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.