Bait of Lies

Carolyn Hailston is a typical child of the English upper-middle class who works in a West End art gallery and shares a flat with Toni, a secretary to a Member of Parliament. On a trip to Prague to take a course in painting restoration, Carolyn becomes involved with an attractive Czech dissident and through him is arrested by the secret police. Only when she has confessed to spying is Carolyn allowed to leave the country and return home. Carolyn's father is an ambitious government minister; when the Czechs try to force Carolyn to obtain secret defense information from him, blackmail and murder are only two of the inevitable, unpleasant consequences. BBC political editor Scott brings his knowledge of Czech activities in Britain to bear here; co-author Allan may be responsible for the almost ingenuous tone of the narrative. This is at first irritating, but it soon serves to invest this thriller with a supremely sinister air: what starts off as a touching love story becomes a nightmare of suspense that readers will find difficult to put down. (September 30)