The Harbinger Effect

Wolf follows Long Chain of Death with a suspenseful, tightly paced, yet often unbelievable thriller. At the center of this rousing spy story are three resourceful women, civilians all, who manage to foil an assortment of highly trained, deadly intelligence operatives. The chase begins in West Africa when Molly Davison, an American working for a relief organization, is reluctantly drawn into smuggling a Russian defector out of the American Embassy and onto a plane bound for Rome. The man requesting political asylum is Yuri Klebanoff, a photographer from a family of high-ranking Soviet officals. Yuri carries photos that implicate Russia and the U.S. in covert military maneuvers to fan the flames of a West African revolution. When bodies start accumulating around them, Molly and Yuri hide out in the Greek isles, then push on to Canada; there Yuri is captured, and Molly joins forces with the intrepid wife of a murdered CIA operative and her tempestuous sister. Their attempt to free Yuri is high--albeit unintentionally hilarious--drama. BOMC alternate; Mysterious Book Club main selection. (Nov.)