Cold Tactics [Hardcover]

Ted Allbeury (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2001

What happens when the enemy manipulates the words of the United States Constitution to his own advantage? Could the Soviet Union really get their own man elected President?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A spymaster's dream caper is played out in this gem of a love letter to Cold War espionage fiction. British SIS agent James MacKay is jolted by a press photo of newly elected U.S. President Logan Powell's press secretary, Andrew Dempsey, recognizing him as a former American student in Paris who was active in the French Communist Party under diamond dealer Viktor Kleppe, a deep-cover KGB agent. Suspecting that the KGB is behind Powell's sudden rise from nowhere to the political bigtime, MacKay contacts his CIA buddy Peter Nolan and they convince director Morton Harper to order background checks on Dempsey, Powell and Kleppe. When witnesses support MacKay's suspicions but they are murdered before they can sign statements, Harper tries to get a CIA go-ahead to prove the agents' case before Inauguration Day and avoid a national disaster. The spiny task of unmasking a high-ranking political appointee and confronting an elected president add to the tension as Nolan hurdles bodies and dodges bullets in a race to find witnesses and keep them alive long enough to foil the beautifully crafted KGB plan. Allbeury (Deep Purple) is a master at spycraft and fashions a thoroughly credible Cold War scenario spiced with the dry wit, measured violence and circumspect sex that are his trademark accelerants to a flawlessly structured plot. A few Briticisms in the mouths of American characters don't mar the otherwise spot-on American settings, and the dapper MacKay smoothly melds with his U.S. counterparts as they joust with the Soviets. A satisfying finale will please any Cold War aficionado. First published in Britain in 1981 as The Twentieth Day of January, this is a welcome addition to the list of Allbeury titles available in the U.S. (May)Forecast: This one may be difficult to find on bookstore shelves, but true connoisseurs will seek it out, and it'll be a welcome addition to library collections of Cold War thrillers.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Cold war buffs will find much of interest in this novel, published in England in 1981 but making its first appearance in the U.S. The premise is intriguing: What if the Soviet Union somehow managed to place its own man in the White House? In this case, the man is Logan Powell, a mild-mannered businessman propelled into the governor's mansion and later the White House through a wide-ranging Communist plot of which he knows absolutely nothing--until the Soviets decide it's time for him to repay a few favors. The novel doesn't appear to have been updated since its original release, which gives the story an unusual feel, like watching a 20-year-old spy series on television. Still, even though the politics are way out-of-date, the story itself is gripping and, in its historical context, plausible. The best cold war espionage novels never really lose their punch; Allbeury, like le Carre, is a master of the genre, and this novel represents some of his best work. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Severn House Publishers (May 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0727856758
• ISBN-13: 978-0727856753
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.6 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,739,979 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.