Agents of Darkness

A darkened street is ``razored by flashing lights'' and a killer has learned the ``delicate beauty of patience'' in this handsomely crafted espionage tale, likely to be another winner for the bestselling Armstrong ( Mambo ; Jig ). When Charlie Galloway, a transplanted Scotsman recently suspended from the LAPD, discovers the brutally murdered body of his Filipino housekeeper, he stumbles onto a conspiracy that reaches into the highest levels of U.S. government. In 1985, in Benguet province, the Philippines, several people suspected of anti-Marcos activities were massacred in a deserted field, with the connivance of the CIA. Now, five years later, an assassin has come to the U.S. to avenge those deaths. William Laforge, one of the operatives present that night, now stands for appointment to head the CIA; Byron Truskett, his chief Senate backer and himself a presidential aspirant, needs a squeaky-clean nominee. To what lengths will these men go to protect themselves and their ambitions? And can Galloway, a self-described Lone Ranger with a fierce thirst for whiskey and a marriage on the rocks, possibly help his adopted country and save himself at the same time? Readers will stay riveted. (June)