Little Grey Mice - Softcover

Freemantle, Brian

3.92

25 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099933500 ISBN 13: 9780099933502

Publisher: Random House UK, 1992

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The KGB decides to use agent Otto Reimann to seduce Elke Meyer, the personal assistant to a top West German Cabinet member, to give over classified information, but Moscow does not count on the unpredictability of love.

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About the Author:

Brian Freemantle [b. 1936] is one of Britain's most acclaimed authors of spy fiction. His novels have sold over ten million copies worldwide. Born in Southampton, Freemantle entered his career as a journalist, and began writing espionage thrillers in the late 1960s. Charlie M (1977) introduced the world to Charlie Muffin and won Freemantle international recognition—he would go on to publish fourteen titles in the series.

Freemantle has written dozens of other novels, including two featuring Sebastian Holmes, an illegitimate son of Sherlock Holmes, and the Cowley and Danilov series, about an American FBI agent and a Russian militia detective who work together to comabt organized crime in the post-Cold War world. Freemantle lives and works in London, England.

From Kirkus Reviews:

A compelling case of sexpionage set in Bonn at the thaw of the cold war, by veteran spymeister Freemantle (O'Farrell's Law, 1989, etc.). ``Little grey mice,'' Freemantle lets us know, is spy slang ``for lonely, unattached women employed in government service''- -women like Elke Meyer, personal assistant to a top West German cabinet minister and perfect prey for a man like Otto Reimann, an East German ``raven''--a male spy trained in the arts of sexual seduction. Reimann's mission is to suborn Elke utterly, which he, posing as a journalist, does by fulfilling her every romantic desire in a masterful manipulation played out in some of the most sophisticatedly sadistic scenes in recent spy fiction (``Reimann abruptly put the telephone down, not allowing her a farewell reply. Elke Meyer had to be alone now, think alone, grow further uncertain. Marinate was the word that most readily came into Reimann's mind...''). A clutch of well-drawn subplots counterpoint the raven's maneuverings--especially tensions between the spy and his demanding superiors and jealous wife, and between Elke and her adulterous, envious sister--though some, particularly the detailed accounts of cabinet meetings that Elke attends, drag on the plot. The not-unexpected kicker is that Reimann, just like Elke, can't resist love's passionate assault, and the spy, to his dismay, falls in love with his victim even as she begins to feed him top-secret documents to further his alleged journalistic career. It's an explosive situation fraught with possibility--but, alas, Freemantle defuses it with one big ironic twist that reveals Elke as still a mouse, albeit a mouse that roars. Richly textured characters, the unusual premise, and Reimann's hypnotically cruel seduction--all make this, despite flaws (including an occasional snail's pace), one of Freemantle's finest. -- Copyright �1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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