Dirty Tricks

"An amusing, intricately tangled international spy-thriller with, happily, more ingenuity than falling bodies. John Falconer, Chief of the CIA's Clandestine Services, looks forward to his retirement but also decides, before he goes, to help fend off World War III with a swansong caper he calls ""Cliffhanger."" Falconer's challenge: how to scuttle the USSR's secret plan (""Operation Sword-thrust"") for an invasion of Western Europe and unification of the two Germanies? His idea: without the knowledge of either the US Prez or West Germany, he will feed false information to KGB Chairman Yakovlev, leading him to believe that the US has secretly armed West Germany with neutron warheads that will effectively neutralize the planned USSR invasion tank force. And Falconer's primary dupe in this plan will be Sir Mark Quinn, director of British Secret Intelligence: Falconer will arrange for the phony neutron-warheads secret to seem to originate with a British informer in the US National Security Council; and he'll use the KGB-ish connections of Britain's left-leaning Prime Minister for a variety of smokescreens and scams."


Genre: Mystery