The Power

Mills did well with such thrillers as The Panic in Needle Park and Report to the Commissioner , but his latest is sheer silliness. U.S. scientific intelligence agent Hammond, whose religion is ``goodness,'' has a tricky mission: to explore a super-secret ```psychotronic'' Soviet operation, code name Spectrum, which uses occult powers to affect the health and thinking of world leaders, among other undertakings. This brings Hammond into contact with two Soviet women, both predictably mysterious and beautiful: one a major force behind Spectrum, apparently intent on defecting to the West; and the other a faith healer (she has a go at curing ailing Soviet leader Yuri Andropov). Events reach a climax in Moscow with Satan playing a major, if losing, role. The story is crammed with terms like ``psychokinetic'' and ``psychobiological,'' but stripped of its occult machinery, it's dull. Even the occult machinery itself is dull. Wherever or whatever ``the power'' may be, it's not here. Major ad/promo; author tour. (Sept.)