Prussian Blue

The author of Seven Days to Petrograd has written another literate, intelligent, often witty thriller, but here the plot becomes so convoluted and farfetched that credibility suffers. Muckraking reporter John Brady is writing an unauthorized biography of Andrew Carlson, the director of the CIA. As Brady comes nearer to the discovery of embarrassing truths, especially the existence of an extralegal clandestine operation within the CIA, his life suddenly becomes a dangerous shambles: his apartment is ransacked, computer files representing months of research on Carlson are erased, and Brady is arrested for espionage against the U.S. His sometime lover, movie queen Tracy Anderson, posts bail, and also arranges a secret meeting at Carlson's behest. Brady is offered exoneration from all charges if he will terminate work on the book. Events--including serious threats on Brady's life--careen so out of control that a decision is rendered moot. At stake are issues far greater and more immediate than the publication of one book. Though Hyman creates a chilling scenario the reader is thrust from one improbable situation to another, so that by novel's end the feeling is more one of exhaustion than surprise. BOMC selection. (Apr.)