The Relic

This cluttered romantic suspense novel centers on a czarist relic with a symbolic power so strong that it could topple the Soviet government. The ancient St. Vladimir's cross is in the possession of a Ukrainian emigre whose dying wish is that his daughter, Lucy, deliver the artifact to Ivan Volkov, a Soviet dissident exiled to Geneva. But Volkov, diminished by alcohol abuse and his psychiatrist/secret agent wife's brainwashing tactics, is in no shape to lead a fight for freedom--until he and Lucy fall in love. Determined to restore the bejeweled treasure to the oppressed Soviet masses, the couple must escape secret agents, Volkov's treacherous wife and a trained psychokiller. Anthony makes a prodigious effort to render her tale of political intrigue in the age of glasnost both urgent and plausible. But Volkov is not a convincing revolutionary; one doubts that his pale platitudes (``Liberty is the life of the human soul'') would spark a rebellion. And though the numerous subplots ultimately come together as neatly as nesting Russian dolls, they command little interest along the way. With her 31st book, Anthony lays an egg--and it's not Faberge. BOMC alternate. (Aug.)