BETRAYAL

First published in England in 1980, this umpteenth novel of romantic espionage from Anthony (The Relic, 1991, etc.) pits a British agent against a KGB defector, an American double agent, and a Russian mole within her own secret service department.

For eight months, Davina Graham’s been Ivan Sasanov’s minder, trying to coax Politburo secrets out of him, but he insists he’ll speak only when his wife and daughter are rescued from Russia, a task complicated when his wife is imprisoned in Lubyanka, his daughter’s meetings with a Moscow university dissent are monitored, and worse yet, that pesky mole finds out where Sasanov has been stashed and plans an assassination. Davina, by now deeply attached to her charge, wants to make him happy, so off she goes to the Crimea, accompanied by Peter Harrington, a washed-out spy trying to rehabilitate himself. The twosome plot to spirit Sasanov’s daughter out by submarine while posh Jeremy Spencer-Barr keeps an eye on things at the Embassy in Moscow. Doublecrosses abound. Murder occurs. There’ll be a spot of torture, messages passed in code, and some passionate kissing before the Russians and the Brits figure out face-saving cover-ups and reunite Davina with her dearest love—and with her mum, dad, and even her beautiful but manipulative sister Charley.

Once you get past the references to Margaret Thatcher and the Berlin Wall, Anthony’s brisk prose and admirable knowledge of clandestine derring-do make for a mildly adventuresome read.