A Dutch spy has been murdered in Istanbul and the dynamic duo of clandestine American operatives, Jack Mallory and Laura Morse, are sent to Turkey to avenge his death. Amidst Mallory's pursuit of Central Asian tail and Morse's silent pining for Jack, they uncover a Cold War plot to smuggle all the gold out of the Turkish Treasury via underground tunnels. Posing as New York tourists in a troubled marriage, Jack lures the killers out into the open so they can kick some Soviet ass. But the Russians are plotting world domination from their secret compound on the tropical island of He'Konau and Jack and Laura must storm the compound and disrupt their plans.
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The review of this Book prepared by Jennifer Martin-Romme
Harper Collins, Sept 2004, 22.95, 320 pp.
ISBN 0060723769
Hired by the Consultancy, a profit-making black-ops organization, Van Vliet is in Istanbul where he believes that the Club Europa is being built as a cover for something else. Before he informs Gray, the head of the Consultancy, he is killed in his shower by a head that emits flame instead of water. It is 1962 and the cold war is fought by the Consultancy who the CIA hires to find out what is going on in Istanbul.
Gray sends his two best operatives, Jack Mallory and Laura Morse to Istanbul where they learn that their old nemesis Anton Rauth hired mercenaries to kill them. Still alive, the duo find an earth digging machine in the cellar of the Club used to construct a tunnel into the Turks equivalent of Ft. Knox. Jack and Laura are sent to the volcanic island of He' Konau where Rauth has his base of operations inside the volcano. Their assignment is to gather intelligence but they are caught snooping and only a miracle will save their lives and that of millions of people when Anton unleashes his master weapon.
The team of Mallory and Morse are the equal of 007 and other spy heroes who graced the pages of the spy thrillers of the 1960's. There is action, action and more action but like James Bond there is much tongue in cheek humor that lessens the tensions when it threatens to become overwhelming.
Harriet Klausner
The review of this Book prepared by Harriet Klausner