The Spy in the Russian Club: How Glenn Souther Stole America's Nuclear War Plans and Escaped to Moscow

In an absurd, trivial abstract, Kessler ( The Richest Man in the World) indicts as a spy Glenn Souther, a U.S. Navy reservist who was granted asylum in the U.S.S.R. in 1986, committed suicide in 1989 and was buried in Moscow. Other than asserting that Souther ``had access to all of America's nuclear war plans,'' Kessler reveals little about his duties, leaving readers to speculate about the availability of secrets to a former photographer's mate first-class in the regular Navy who, during the period considered here, served in the reserve while a college student in Virginia majoring in Russian. Perhaps because the author has limited access to military secrets himself, much of the book gossips about the supposed spy's demonstrable covert activities: his penchant for biting lovers on neck and thigh, his ``fooling around under the blanket'' with a woman on a plane trip, his cache of lambskin condoms. One Souther caper is so relished by the author that he relates it twice: ``He would . . . open his fly, snake his arm into his pants, and shake hands through the opening.'' Readers will agree with the girlfriend who described Souther as ``geeky''--and conclude the same about the book. Photos not seen by PW. (June)