Code Ezra

The author of The Midwife and River of Dreams here attempts to enter the world of espionage writing, with decidedly mixed results. At the center of this somewhat unwieldy novel (supposedly based on real-life incidents) is Israeli spymaster Eli Katzar and the three women he recruits to form his ""Ezra'' team: Charlotte, an American princess from Scarsdale; Lily, survivor of the death camps; and Israeli-born Aviva. During a mission in France in the late 1970s, an Israeli scientist is murdered and Katzar realizes that one of the three has betrayed him. The novel alternates between Katzar's attempt to discover the turncoat with flashbacks of his own recruitment and training of the three women and the dangerous careers they survived as Israeli agents. Aside from its undue length, the book suffers chiefly from the fact that Courter telegraphs the answer to the key question far too early. 125,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild selection; author tour. (May 19)