Agent Alan Trosper makes his third appearance after quitting the spy business for the second time in Cry Spy (LJ 12/89). This time he is persuaded to rejoin the post-Cold War dance of international espionage and secret agents when a Moscow defector offers information that seems to establish Russian infiltration at the highest levels of "The Firm" and the U.S. diplomatic corps. When the defector disappears, Trosper is sent to find him and to check out his information. The tension mounts as the defector plays cat-and-mouse and his information proves true. The story progresses swiftly, moving from London to Prague to Washington to Moscow and back while Trosper deals with double agents, the Czech police, traitors, and the FBI. As usual, Hood, himself a former OSS/CIA agent, provides a wealth of detail that makes for a convincing and satisfying tale. Recommended for all popular fiction collections.-Rebecca House Stankowski, Purdue Univ. Lib., Hammond, Ind.
Alan Trosper just can't say no. The ex-spy protagonist of Hood's two previous thrillers (Spy Wednesday, 1985, and Cry Spy, 1989) once again responds with alacrity to a summons from "The Firm" (a smaller, more polished version of the CIA).
Trosper, supposedly retired and happily married to Emily, is recruited to review a bungled investigation into the possibility that someone at the Firm may have been feeding information to the KGB. The initial investigation had resulted in the dismissal of three senior agents, all of whom left proclaiming their innocence. Now a mysterious former KGB operative, cut adrift by the post- Soviet regime, is offering to sell the Firm hard evidence about unnamed American traitors. The Russian leads Trosper on a merry chase through post-Soviet Eastern Europe, eventually disclosing (as a sign of good faith) an American military attaché as a high-priced source of secrets for the Yeltsin-era version of the KGB. That case carries Trosper on to more important quarry: a highly placed figure in the State Department who has been a longtime ally of the Russians. They have killed at least once to protect him, and will do so again. There's a vividly described pursuit of a suspect through the streets of New York, crowded with Thanksgiving Day parade-goers, and a subtle, lethal minuet with the villains before Trosper can bring the case to a close. Hood, at one time the executive officer of the CIA's counterintelligence division, is superb at rendering the day-to-day business of spying, the months of tedium and moments of terror, but less good at shaping an interesting protagonist. Trosper remains more a collection of virtues than a convincing figure. And there's a Russian hit-person who seems rather too good to be entirely believable.
Still, as an intriguing puzzle and as a portrait of Russian and American spies navigating a greatly changed world, this latest from Hood lingers in the mind.
