Review
The continuing saga of beauteous British super-spy Davina Graham (The Defector, Avenue of the Dead) - now involved in her least active or engaging adventure: a chatty mini-imitation of le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Still angry at British Intelligence for betraying her husband (with fatal results), Davina is again persuaded to undertake an unofficial assignment by second-in-command Humphrey Grant. The assignment? To identify the KGB mole in the top echelons of British spydom. The major source of information? Soviet spy Peter Harrington - now in a British prison and willing to tell what he knows in exchange for freedom. So Davina visits Harrington in jail, very slowly extracting a few clues. (He doesn't actually know the identity of "Albatross," the high-placed mole.) She also sneaks into Intelligence files - and finds tamperings in the records of the three major mole-suspects: about-to-retire spymaster Brigadier James White, whom Davina despises; Humphrey Grant himself (a repressed homosexual); and third-in-command John Kidson, Davina's own brother-in-law. Meanwhile, however, key witness Harrington has been in touch with the KGB - who attempt to arrange his escape from custody; Davina, with help from agent-lover Colin Lomax, manages to foil the escape, taking personal possession of Harrington (he's hidden in a hotel). And while the interrogation thus continues, with Davina piecing together small bits of evidence (and refusing to trust anyone), she works as a "cover" for the huge ad-agency of Tony Walden - a suave Polish/Jewish refugee who is soon helping Davina and winning her heart. (Goodbye, Colin.) No surprises, very little tension, a few cross-cuts to the machinations of Davina's KGB nemesis Borisov . . . and lots of review-material from the earlier novels: serviceable fare for Davina's followers, annoyingly derivative stuff for the many Tinker, Tailor veterans. (Kirkus Reviews)
Product Description
Originally published in 1991 and now reissued, a thriller from the author of BLOODSTONES, EXPOSURE and THE DOLL'S HOUSE. Who is the mole called Albatross? British Intelligence has a number of suspects, but they need to find out who the mole is before time runs out for Britain - and for the rest of the world.
