Washington Shadow

Set in the fall of 1945, Monroe's unsplashy but compelling second novel featuring British agent Peter Cotton (after The Maze of Cadiz) will remind many of le Carré. Cotton's masters dispatch him to Washington, D.C., with economist John Maynard Keynes, who's charged with persuading President Truman to help England deal with the tremendous financial cost of WWII. That mission coincides with a radical reworking of the American spy network that eliminates the OSS and divvies up its duties between the State and War departments. Cotton's real assignment is to keep an eye on the State Department's role in the new order. While some espionage fiction readers might prefer more action, Monroe's understated approach is more consonant with the reality of covert work, and her hero is a refreshing change from the usual two-fisted, bed-hopping stereotype. (Jan.)