Stray Cats

Mehl pits three outcast ex-intelligence agents against the CIA in this dynamic if thinly characterized espionage adventure. Set up for execution, aging spook and safecracker Tommy Kane finds refuge in Belize. There, he links up with former KGB man Sergei Yenchenko and ex-British operative Ian Wells, and decides to fight back. Mehl's thriller evokes both the sense of a world gone wrong and the Wild West image of determined loners facing down the bad guys. Unfortunately, the clipped British-isms given to Wells and the clumsy, Russian-laden English of Yenchenko are hackneyed. Despite an unconvincing resolution, fans of the genre will be more than rewarded by the book's wealth of convincing detail about flight plans, computer hacking, money games, and other dirty tricks.