From Publishers Weekly
Despite a tantalizing setup, this Cold War thriller quickly descends to the level of soap opera. Bar-Zohar, whose previous espionage fiction ( The Devil's Spy ) has appeared under the pseudonym Michael Hastings, opens on a scene from the Stalinist purges--the trial and execution of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Writers Committee. Tonya Gordon, a poet whose husband has been sentenced to death, escapes the same fate by marrying NKVD officer Boris Morozov in order to save her son, Alex. Boris and Tonya have another son, but eventually the purges catch up to Tonya. Boris avoids his own fall long enough to smuggle Alex to Tonya's sister in Brooklyn and to stash his own son, Dimitri, in a harsh military orphanage. Later, Alex embarks on an academic career in Russian studies while Dimitri ends up as a top international killer for the KGB. A CIA agent, planning to get at Dimitri through Alex, engineers a reunion in Paris. The brothers fall for the same woman (a Romanov, no less) and straight into espionage stereotypes. Exposed to Dimitri's evil nature, Alex joins the CIA to wage lifelong war against his KGB brother; each rises to head his organization. The early Soviet history and the stunning finale aren't enough to salvage the cliched characterizations and plot.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In Moscow during the last bloody days of Stalin's regime, two half-brothers are separated. One is sent to America to be raised as a Jew, the other to a state orphanage. Quickly, each comes to represent an archetype. The American is educated, free-thinking, trusting and trustworthy, loving and loved; the Russian is a KGB killer, virulently anti-Semitic, secretive, and deceitful. The Cold War brings them into conflict. Their stories, intertwined and opposed, mirror the author's view of the situations of their two nations. Veteran writer Bar-Zohar ( Facing a Cruel Mirror: Israel's Moment of Truth , LJ 6/1/90) is sentimental and homiletic, mixing Cold War lore and history. There may be some interest in this book among diehard fans of such thrillers, but it's not a high priority for most libraries.
- Edwin B. Burgess, U.S. Army TRALINET Ctr., Fort Monroe, Va.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
