Red warning A novel

Fear you're being stalked? Try this: walk for a few days down a street with heavy video surveillance. Then, with a few cute maneuvers on your laptop, access the cameras' video feeds. Does the same face reappear? You now have something to show the cops. A dozen such tidbits add spice to Quirk's latest spy novel, which brings together some genre staples: sleeper agents, double crosses, and murder. CIA spook Sam Hudson's bosses think he's off base about Konstantin, a shadowy Russian operative whom Sam is sure is behind a decade of unsolved assassinations. Sam contends he has hints that Konstantin is in D.C. and has plans to blow up a considerable chunk of official Washington. But something seems off. A search reveals a cache of Semtex, which hasn't been used in assassinations for a decade. Seeing the connections and thwarting the loony plot occasion fights, chases, torture, and gunplay--all in the service of a well-told if conventional spy thriller. Some readers may find themselves yearning for more of those insider tidbits. Want success in Washington? Never use two words: "sorry" and "just."

Despite being on paid leave for overzealously pursuing past cases, CIA officer Sam Hudson, the hero of this fast-paced thriller from Quirk (Hour of the Assassin), refuses to back off his search for a deep cover Russian agent, code-named Konstantin, believed responsible for the assassination of several U.S. operatives overseas. Hudson believes Konstantin has already arrived in Washington, D.C., and is behind a recent bombing, as well as a dramatic explosion on the Mall that killed a U.S. senator. Hudson teams with fellow CIA officer Emily Pierce, and together they endure several bloody encounters with embedded Russian agents who are planning to take Konstantin's plan a step further by activating an operation set in place 35 years earlier by Soviet spies. A tense, subterranean confrontation between Hudson and Konstantin caps off the action. In the end, neither lead character leaves much of an impression, and the middle of the convoluted plot contains references to events and characters that will be meaningful only to those who have read other books by this author. Fans of Quirk's rock 'em, sock 'em brand, however, will be satisfied. Agent: Dan Conaway, Writers House. (June)