Basic Law: A Mystery of Cold War Europe

In this fast-moving suspense novel from Jones (The German Agent), set a few years after the end of the Cold War, Sam Kramer, an American foreign correspondent in Vienna, flies to Bonn after learning that Reni M%C3%BCller, former head of the Green coalition in the German Parliament, has killed herself. Though he hasn't seen Reni in more than 20 years, Kramer rushes to attend the funeral because of their past intimacy. He's surprised to learn that he was named her literary executor and that no evidence exists of the memoir she supposedly was working on at the time of her death. When Kramer gets the name of Peter Gorik, someone she may have interviewed for her book, he finds out that Gorik, who was with East German intelligence, recently died in an accident. Increasingly convinced that Reni was killed to keep her disclosing some dangerous secrets, the reporter doggedly investigates. Kramer is more credible as a journalist than as an action hero, and veteran genre readers will encounter few surprises, but Jones will keep them turning pages. (Apr.)