The Wings of the Wind

Hardy ( The Rivers of Darkness shows increasing literary skill, excellently displayed in this 10th book, a literate adventure story. Here is the fascination of Clavell's Orient, combined with the sophistication of le Carre. Hardy's language is crisp and at times poetic. ""He turned the pages of the old Bible and the spine cracked again with its sound of tiny breaking bones.'' The narrative resounds on several levels: that of a spy novel, a saga of greed and hidden treasure, and a study of two men in conflict searching for atonement to assuage guilty consciences. In 1964, Lewis Mackenna, a third-generation medical missionary in China, his wife and their 10-year-old twins are on the run from John Chen, a high-ranking security officer determined to bring Lewis to book for his crimes against the Communist state. Lewis has been imprisoned by the Communists along with other missionaries, and his spirit was corrupted by his harrowing experiences. His eroding faith has led him to become a spy for Chiang Kai-shek. The plot here has many twists; even when the chase seems over, there is more to come. A powerful, elegant book that, like its author, should not be ignored, for writers of this caliber are rare. (January 21)