Death of a Marionette

Neal Morley, the protagonist of this gritty, claustrophobic thriller, is a Vietnam vet and operative for a U.S. government agency known as ``the Bureau.'' He is sent to Brussels from London to interview over-the-hill puppeteer Serge Cailleau, who has smuggled six, perhaps seven, terrorists into Belgium to attack an upcoming European Union meeting. When the puppeteer is killed during a performance, Morley's only lead is Bernadette, the woman who played one of Cailleau's life-sized marionettes. But Morley isn't the man he was six months ago, when he suffered a near-fatal beating while breaking up a drug ring. He's slower, warier, jumpier and conscious of his weaknesses and of his mistakes. Moreover, neither the Bureau nor the local police are sure he can handle the job, particularly since they know that he has his own personal agenda--to find the paymaster behind the drug ring, a man whom everyone maintains does not exist. Morley's road to revenge is paved with betrayals, botched interrogations, an uneasy comradeship with his Soviet counterpart and violence born of fear and frustration. Yet thanks to sharp, evocative writing, his story remains, at heart, a tale of character--of Morley's moral confusion. The obligatory romance is handled with skill, the final twist isn't gratuitous, and it all adds up to one tough spy thriller. (Nov.)