cover image Her Majesty's Hit Man

Her Majesty's Hit Man

Allan Prior. William Morrow & Company, $15.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-688-06769-4

Jay, the hero of Prior's appealing and neatly plotted espionage thriller (after A Cast of Stars, is quiet adept at what he doeswhich is killing people for the British government. Though the money is good, idealism also motivates Jay; he is a patriot, albeit a slightly embittered one. When his ""control'' sends him to an elite army training camp, Jay believes he is being tested for something unusual, a suspicion confirmed when an attractive CIA agent named Marty recruits him for an assignment in America. Although he has had close calls on recent assignmentsincluding one that involved IRA assassinsJay accepts the CIA offer, largely because of Marty's singular enticements. Occasional slow-moving passages aside, the book proceeds nicely, right up to the neat twist provided by Jay's American target. (February 18)