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Summary
Summary
Fall 1999
Author Notes
Espionage thriller writer Clive (Frederick William) Egleton was born on November 25, 1927 and died in 2006.
Egleton was a Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army and was also involved in intelligence missions in Cyprus, the Persian Gulf, and East Africa.
His espionage thrillers include Seven Days to a Killing, A Killing in Moscow and Blood Money. His novel Seven Days to a Killing was filmed as The Black Windmill, starring Michael Caine. Escape to Athena is a novelization of the 1979 movie of the same name. Egleton also wrote under the names of Patrick Blake and John Tarrant.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The best spy novels function both within the real world and deep inside a convincing world all their own. This disappointing novel from the usually excellent Egleton (Blood Money) fails on both counts. Secret Intelligence Service agent Peter Ashton, always willing to bend the rules, has more reason than ever to push the envelope when one of the three people found dead in a London psychiatrist's office is discovered to have been using the identity of Peter's wife, Harriet. Also an occasional operative, Harriet is alive and well, but the SIS believes the impostor took advantage of a security lapse in a database containing agents' personal files. From there, the investigation proceeds through an unruly tangle of coincidences and dead ends. It's revealed that the murdered psychiatrist is related to a powerful Hindu terrorist, and that the dead woman who pretended to be Harriet is related to a Russian diplomat. The unsecured database serves as a possible hit list for the provisional IRA, while a middleman between a computer hacker and the Hindu dies with his head placed on a busy train track. Spy craft requires a certain amount of facelessness, but the unrelenting wash of characterless operatives here makes for bland reading. Moreover, the villain's motivations are never satisfactorily explored. Despite some good action sequences that will remind readers of vintage Egleton, this latest novel from the veteran author produces more sound than substance. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
It's the intramural intrigue that's the most fun in this bristling, post-Soviet spy novel from prolific Egleton (Blood Money, 1998, etc.) Peter Ashton, that nonpareil among clandestine folk, receives a terrible jolt as the story gets underway: His wife is dead, he's told by his boss, Victor Hazelwood, Director General of England's Secret Intelligence Service. Murdered, Hazelwood says'shot to death in her doctor's office. That Harriet, whom Peter loves to distraction, turns out to be very much alive both relieves and unsettles him further. Someone or something has penetrated SIS security deeply enough to gather a good deal of information that should have been absolutely unavailable. And why Harriet? Before long Peter learns that Harriet's file is only one of many that have suddenly become all too accessible. Has a mole burrowed its debilitating way into SIS? If so, whose mole'the Iraqis,' the IRA's? Charged by Hazelwood to find out, Peter is hampered in his investigation by the agency's tireless infighting and incessant jockeying for position. Jill Sheridan, for instance, as brilliant as she is glacial, yearns to be the first female Director General. Fixated, she views the whole of life's processional through ambition's prism. Hazelwood himself has an agenda so arcane that Peter can only guess wildly at the items on it. But though ancient grudges and shifting alliances may slow him down, nothing can block the indomitable Peter indefinitely. Answers he wants, answers he goes for'a quest that takes him to ports of call all over the world. He asks the pertinent questions, breaks the odd, obdurate head, plugs some pernicious holes, and in the end, thanks to him, SIS's sense of security is no longer the false thing it was. Overcomplicated, of course'this is Egleton, after all'but the action is brisk, the characters sharply drawn, and only le Carr does bureaucratic backbiting better.
Booklist Review
Egleton's latest thriller resembles a particularly challenging crossword puzzle, offering cryptic clues so complex that even the cleverest readers won't guess the answers. British SIS agent Peter Ashton, whose colleagues disparage his unorthodox methods even as they envy his superb "solve" rate, has had a nasty shock. The police have found his wife strangled to death in a local psychiatrist's office. It's only when Ashton, grief stricken, goes to identify the body that he realizes the victim isn't his beloved Harriet after all. But this bizarre episode is just the beginning of a case that will take Ashton from London to Berlin and New York and send him in search of the masterminds behind a series of sinister plots designed to destroy the tenuous peace in Northern Ireland, unleash a deadly germ warfare attack against Pakistan, and provide arms to Indian terrorists. Egleton remains one of the grand masters of the traditional espionage novel, and his latest--buoyed by Ashton's unflappable savoir faire--is as deliciously readable as its many predecessors. --Emily Melton
Library Journal Review
The problem of what to do with SIS (Secret Intelligence Service) once the Cold War ended has been nicely solved by Egleton in his latest book. Here he brings back Peter Ashton, Grade 1 Intelligence Officer, General Duties (Warning Shot), to solve the triple murder of three women, one of whom is identified as Harriet Ashton, Peter's wife. The convoluted, sometimes almost nonexistent trail of evidence leads to India, where a plot is being implemented to stir up tension between that nation and Pakistan. When there is another murder, the IRA and INLA (a militant splinter group of Sinn Fein) get involved. Add to this a couple of troublemakers from Russia who see a chance to seize power and make some money, and Egleton has a perfect vehicle to bring this novel of political intrigue into the new millennium. Ashton works with a black female detective sergeant from Special Branch and his driver (a former member of the royal military police) to bring justice to the world. This powerful book by a highly skilled writer has enough suspense, plot twists, action, and excitement to keep anyone enthralled. For all fiction collections.ÄJo Ann Vicarel, Cleveland Heights-University Heights P.L. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.