The Spy in Question

Dmitry Kalyagin, a British mole, becomes a member of the Politburo and enters a sequence of intrigue, betrayal, and murder that threatens his cover, his values, and his life

Former BBC correspondent Sebastian (who wrote of his expulsion from the U.S.S.R. on espionage charges in I Spy in Russia) set this workmanlike, methodical first novel in wintry, forbidding Moscow, a city full of spies, counteragents and distrust. It's 1990, and Dmitry Kalyagin is about to attain membership in Gorbachev's politburo when his long-dormant status as a "mole" for the British is suddenly reactivated. English intelligence man George Parker, feeling indebted to Kalyagin, begins a covert effort to pull the agent out before his Soviet counterparts discover the traitor's identity. But as the body count starts to rise, Parker's attempts to protect Kalyagin are hampered by both Russian ruthlessness and British indifference. Parker's dogged persistence and Kalyagin's increasing desperation lead to a climactic showdown in the Moscow streets between two networks of spies. Despite a slow start and characterization that is both sketchy and cliched, this adroitly plotted novel builds to a compelling conclusion that stays true to Sebastian's bleak, cynical tone.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

After years of waiting, a British intelligence mole has risen through the ranks to high responsibility in the Kremlin. When it looks as though he is about to be exposed by the KGB, George Parker, the MI6 agent at the Moscow embassy, tries to save him despite London's disinterest. Since the author worked as the BBC's Moscow correspondent (and was himself expelled for spying), one can assume that the background data and characterizations are impeccable. The same cannot be said for the story which, in an attempt to convey the shadowy subtleties and grey intricacies of the espionage demiworld, spends more time baffling than informing the reader. One of those "clever" novels in which complex convolution and unnecessary ambiguity of plot supersede its entertainment value. John North, LRC Ryerson Polytechnical Inst., Toronto
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.