Stealth

Durham makes his debut as a novelist with a provocative techno-thriller whose title has a double meaning. On one level it refers to third-generation stealth technology able to produce a totally invisible aircraft, and on the other suggests the elaborate U.S. deception, dating back to the Kennedy administration, that depends for its final success on agent Michael Pretorius. Coerced out of retirement, Pretorius finds himself on a fast-paced mission where psychotropic drugs are as vital as high-tech gadgetry, where nothing is as it seems, where his survival demands making a transition from pawn to player. Durham, a navy veteran and one-time private investigator, spins a good adventure story, presenting both technical material and chase scenes effectively. And his convincing rationale for the disinformation plan upon which the novel's plot is structured leaves a pungent intellectual aftertaste. (Oct.)