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Book Review By Louisa Eggleton
The Reckoning by Ted Allbeury

Max Inman is an undercover agent with the SIS. He is responsible for learning information regarding the attitudes of the government and people of East Germany and reporting it back to the SIS. His cover is as a journalist and he is quite successful at his work. His girlfriend, Katys Felinska, is a photo-journalist and extremely beautiful and intelligent.
This story is set just before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Max's source of information is a KGB officer, and they discuss and report back about the thinking of Russian and German leaders during this time.

The two men agree to help each other to prevent a war breaking out through misunderstanding of cultures.
The men keep each other's identity secret from their employers. However, men wanting to take over Russia after the expected fall of the Wall find out about the operation and the KGB man is kidnapped and beaten. He doesn't reveal his sources name however, and when his superiors realise he is missing, they find him and arrest the rebels, declaring the operation with Max to be too important to discontinue.
Max is also kidnapped but not given any harsh treatment. When the SIS realise he is kidnapped, they try to get him safely home. They struggle with this and Katya also does her best with the Russian embassy to get him released.

They declare the operation must continue, however Max finds out that his informant was so badly beaten that he is brain damaged and cannot continue with the exchange. He secretly uses someone else but the operation is not really needed after the fall of the Wall and so is discontinued.
This is not the end of the story and Max is promoted to a higher position, when some of his ex-workers find out some negative information regarding his work with the KGB.


Plot & Themes
Tone of story - depressing/sad
Time/era of story:
Spying/Terrorism Thriller Yes
Cloak & Dagger Plotlets:
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
descript. of violence and chases - 10 %
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 70 %
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 10 %
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 10 %
Who's the terrorist enemy here?

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status:
Age: - 20's-30's
Ethnicity/Race

Main Adversary
Identity: - an organization
Motive of antagonist - power
The antagonists are: - KGB
How sensitive is this character?
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence

Setting
Europe Yes
European country: - England/UK - Germany

Writing Style
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
Amount of dialog - significantly more dialog than descript
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