Condition Black

Seymour ( Running Target ) utilizes a solid knowledge of Middle East politics, diplomatic protocol and the international intelligence community to weave a plausible scenario of prewar Iraqi skulduggery. An unlikely eyewitness to the murder of a CIA operative sets FBI agent Bill Erlich on the trail of an assassin named Colt. Meanwhile, Iraqi bosses have given Colt a new target in England so he can visit his dying mother and recruit a British nuclear scientist who could help Iraq build an atomic bomb. While the intrigue is credible, the characters are not to be believed. Erlich's British Intelligence liaison, James Rutherford, routinely fills his wife in on the daily happenings at the office while Erlich calls his girlfriend in Italy no less than three times on unsecured phone lines to keep her up to date. His girlfriend, by the way, is a CBS field reporter--but she won't tell, will she? Colt, for his part, confesses all to his old flame after walking casually into the village pub right after Erlich and Rutherford have come to his father's house looking for him. Seymour's readers expect better than this. (July)