From Publishers Weekly
Of hero Peter Ashton (A Killing in Moscow) a character intones, "Last time [he] was in Moscow there was bloodshed all over the city." The 30-something British agent does attract more than his share of violence. On the trail of "Valentin," a high-ranking officer (or officers) of the defunct KGB who may want to work for Britain's SIS, Ashton is beaten, in deadly peril more than once and involved in many killings. With the turning of a retired Red Army general and the capture of an English-born KGB hit man, our hero appears close to netting Valentin. But a believable twist lands Valentin near the top of the Kremlin heap and Ashton's further adventures are assured. His private life takes a turn, too, when his fiancee, Harriet Egan, wounded in a firefight, seems ready to quit the SIS, where her rising star is opposed to Ashton's career struggles. Egleton's latest thriller is filled with vivid detail: WWII history; the color of Moscow, Berlin and London; CIA-SIS rivalry; the rise of the Russian mafiozniki; the assassination of a neo-Nazi. But it is just exposition to place Valentin in or near power and prepare us for the next book.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Another outstanding espionage thriller from one of the masters of the genre. Egleton's Ashton, the consummate spy, is hot on the trail of a mysterious Russian agent code-named Valentin. With the help of his fiance{‚}e, Ashton delves into Russia's past to track down the identity of the elusive Valentin, who may have been an army deserter turned double agent during World War II. The hunt for Valentin takes Ashton from London to Russia, Germany, and Eastern Europe and sends him undercover as a manufacturer's rep turned arms dealer. Outmaneuvering a host of latter-day KGB thugs with 007-like panache, Ashton eventually wins yet another post^-cold war victory--albeit a somewhat hollow one--for our side. Egleton's stories never cease to entertain, his plots are always fresh, and his characters are real classics of the genre. His books--every one of them--deserve a place on the shelves of every library.
Emily Melton
