Maestro

In this first book to appear under the Penzler imprint, Gardner pulls crusty old agent-runner Big Herbie Kruger out of semiretirement to represent Britain's Secret Intelligence Service in the debriefing of Louis Passau, an internationally renowned conductor. Passau's life is being threatened, probably by people who don't want him to spill important secrets; a botched assassination attempt occurs after the maestro's 90th Birthday Concert at Lincoln Center. Aided by his musical savvy and the sexy young SIS agent Pucky Curtiss, Kruger interviews Passau, learning much about the musician's unpleasant character and equally nasty past. An Austrian Jew, Passau was forced into espionage by Nazis who threatened to kill his family. Although he survived the war, Passau subsequently learned a devastating secret about the great love of his life, the promising young diva he had already elevated to fame. In an attempt to write a ``big'' novel, Gardner ( The Nostradamus Traitor ) has packed this one full--perhaps overfull. But for all its secrets and surprises, there is something strangely offhand about this thriller. The tone is oddly inappropriate; rather than being sinister and dark, it seems unsuitably manic, and Kruger appears both too jolly and too smug. Fans may know what to make of this; first-timers should be forewarned. (Sept.)