Timebomb

In the prologue to this dense spy novel from Seymour (The Collaborator), a disgruntled KGB agent who’s recently lost his job, Maj. Oleg Yashkin, secretly buries a suitcase-sized nuclear device in a remote patch of what until recently used to be the Soviet Union. Fifteen years later, in 2008, Yashkin sells the device to a Russian criminal outfit that plans to deliver the weapon to a terrorist network intent on detonating it in the U.K. or the U.S. Meanwhile, a group of Western intelligent officials who get wind of the plot organize Operation Haystack to prevent the bomb’s delivery. Major players include Russian nationalist Josef Shlomo Goldmann, a money launderer who leads a double life; Goldmann’s ruthless associate, Reuven Weissberg; and former British corporal Johnny Carrick, now working for Goldmann in an undercover capacity. International thriller fans who read chiefly for plot will be more rewarded than those who value engaging characters. Agent: Curtis Brown. (Feb.)