Soviet Sources

Moscow correspondent Colin Burke learns that the Soviet leader has had a stroke, a bit of information that may garner him a Pulitzer Prize if he can escape becoming a pawn in the East-West struggle

One wishes this first-rate yarn had been published a year ago, so much have recent events surpassed it. Colin Burke, Moscow correspondent for the Washington Tribune is fed news that Gen. Secretary Ponomaryov, a driving force of glasnost , has had a stroke. Burke's source is Kusnetsov, a wily journalist whose own source is Andrushin, head of the KGB. Burke is none too subtly warned off the story as the White House responds to Andrushin's move against glasnost. With deeper involvement, including an affair with Marina, a young Russian actress, Burke realizes the CIA and White House are willing to sacrifice him. The plot spins toward a desperate attempt by Burke and Marina to escape to Finland. In his first novel, former Newsweek Moscow correspondent Cullen effectively depicts Russian life and character ("Russia is like an alcoholic. A strong man--a tsar, a Stalin--is our alcohol."); the White House's manipulative cynicism ("We can't be seen as wimpy"); and the scheming of apparatchiks both East and West. 50,000 first printing; major ad/promo.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Cullen has drawn on his stint as Moscow correspondent for Newsweek to produce a smooth offering of contemporary suspense. Colin Burke, who covers the Moscow scene for a large Washington daily, learns of the well-concealed illness of the progressive Soviet leader. Unfortunately, after he breaks the story, he finds it was fed to him as part of a KGB plot to promote a more hard-line regime. When the Soviets set an elaborate trap for him, Burke turns to the U.S. embassy for assistance only to become the victim of a double-cross, as they attempt to use his predicament for political ends. Unlike some recent novels that have become quickly dated by the swift improvement in East-West relations, Soviet Sources draws strength from the daily news of detente, glasnost, and perestroika. This elegant and eminently readable novel is reminiscent of the best quasidocumentary fiction of Arthur Hailey.
- John North, NorCom Enterprises, Toronto
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.