cover image Legend's End

Legend's End

Jack Fuller. Trafalgar Square Publishing, $8.95 (317pp) ISBN 978-0-340-53552-3

Isaac McWade claims that there are ``only two reasons people begin backing away from you--either they are afraid or you should be.'' So when folks at the National Security Council, where McWade works, give him a wide berth, it's time to worry. Word has leaked to the press regarding secret arms control talks with the Russians--talks McWade knew about. Also, Ernest Fisherman, the CIA's prime counterintelligence agent or ``chief ferret,'' is--for reasons known only to him--out for blood. An unreliable source claims that Fisherman is after Michael Ross, McWade's superior and mentor at the NSC, and that McWade is a tool in the scheme. However, the full answer lies in earlier days, when McWade and Ross were with the CIA, McWade a rookie and Ross running his valuable ``Narcissus'' network in Europe. Fuller ( Convergence ) pieces together past and present in an espionage tale potent powerful in its moral ambiguity, following a character who struggles to be a whole person rather than a pastiche of ``legends'' (assumed identities), serving a government where public policy blurs into private intrigue and success equals survival--preferably with power. (Dec.)