Concerto

In this timely and satisfying espionage thriller, Jones ( Barbarossa Red ; Russian Spring ) combines the current unrest among the Warsaw Pact nations with continuing cloak-and-dagger politics of the Kremlin to create a provocative international scenario: the kidnapping of Gorbachev on the eve of addressing the U.N. Fearing reprisals, the U.S. brings in veteran CIA agent Sean Brennan to unravel the case, as a Polish terrorist organization, the Jan Paderewski Cell, claims credit for the abduction. Not satisfied with their claim, Brennan continues his investigation and, in the sewers of old Warsaw, learns that the abductors are not Polish terrorists, but an elite KGB task force on a mission to topple the Gorbachev government, crush glasnost , and reinstate totalitarian regimes in the Soviet Union and across central Europe. Presidential bungling and friction among government agencies foil Brennan's efforts to free Gorbachev. Jones's sympathetic hero, taut pacing and keen eye for contemporary politics prove there is life for the international espionage thriller even in the age of glasnost. (May)