Spy Wednesday

While no burn-out, Alan Trosper has nevertheless resigned from the CIA after years of perilous and often fruitless spying. But a new director reactivates him and asks him to unravel the mysteries of Phoenix, an intrigue with whose components Trosper had become familiar years before. From New York to Vienna to Budapest to Zurich, he evaluates the intelligence and the pseudo-intelligence offered for sale by agents and double agents, defectors and opportunists. Phoenix ultimately involves the most important KGB defection in years, but to spirit this spymaster from East to West, Trosper must jeopardize not only his own life but those of old friends and an innocent young woman. Spi-fi devotees will feel satisfied by the actions and insider's parlance of the professionals, the authentic quality of which derives from Hood's (Mole) 30 years' experience in the CIA. Foreign rights: Harold Ober. January 27