Cover Story [Hardcover]

Robert Cullen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 13, 1994

This compelling novel offers a gripping portrait of the Soviet Union in total disarray. At its center is Colin Burke, Moscow correspondent for an American magazine, who soon gets caught up in a riveting thriller involving Russian nuclear scientists imported by the Syrians, Israeli intelligence, the black market--and Burke's own wavering integrity.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A report of possible Syrian nuclear capability sends Colin Burke, the Moscow correspondent for America Weekly introduced in Soviet Sources , in search of a mysterious Middle Eastern businessman who may be hiring Russian atomic scientists. Also interested are the Israelis, represented by a beautiful Mossad agent, and the KGB. A prostitute leads Burke to a Russian scientist heading "West." The prostitute is murdered; Burke is briefly jailed; the scientist disappears; and, when the dust clears, the bad guys are the official good guys. Cullen, Newsweek 's Moscow bureau chief in the mid-1980s, knows Moscow cold and offers a terrific tour of post-Soviet Russia and an insider's view of the newsmagazine biz. The Russian characters are vivid and believable, notably a crusty old Russian Army officer and a tough young woman working any street scam she can. Burke's awareness of his alcoholism may surface abruptly, but he's bright and appealingly scruffy--Moscow is "the only town in the world where the natives made him look dapper." Readers will turn pages to the slightly forced ending. Film rights optioned by Alan Pakula.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

What does it take to get a good news story in Moscow now that old sources have dried up, competition is fierce, and the editor back home is yammering for scoops? For American journalist Colin Burke, who has been working in Moscow during the last nine years, it takes piercing the deceptions perpetrated by the U.S. government, Mossad spies, and Russian enablers. The plot hinges on a lead that the Syrians are hiring Russian nuclear scientists to build atomic armaments for Syrian strongman Hafez al-Assad. At first duped and then outraged, Burke uses his wide knowledge of contemporary Moscow to try out the old "trust but verify" approach. What makes this saga notably engaging is that his spark of journalistic ethics is quite strong, leading him to acts of derring-do far beyond his comfort zone. Because Cullen (Soviet Sources, LJ 5/1/90), Newsweek's Moscow bureau chief in the mid-Eighties, convincingly plays the conscience card, this second novel radiates a gravity that belies the usual stereotypes of hard-drinking, cynical journalists. There isn't a single disappointing page in this suspenseful, action-packed thriller. Most libraries will want it for summer reading.
Barbara Conaty, Library of Congress
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; First Edition edition (June 13, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689121989
• ISBN-13: 978-0689121982
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,412,643 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Again, a great read, September 16, 2010

By 

X-Wonderbug "x-wonderbug" (NE Illinois) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Cover Story (Felony & Mayhem Mysteries) (Colin Burke) (Paperback)

Please read my review of "Soviet Sources," the first of the Colin Burke Trilogy.

In this one, the plot is a bit complicated and harder to follow than "Sources." Again, we are in Moscow with a Russian-speaking American journalist who is trying to track down a story. Because of the author's journalistic background, one suspects that there is more truth than fiction in some of the plot elements. Again, the author emphasizes that nothing seems to have changed much in the so-called "New Russia," from the economic and political repression of the old. While great reading, a real page-turner, I came away at the end, not really understanding what the plot was all about. In this respect my enjoyment was a bit clouded with disappointment.

4.0 out of 5 stars Gritty Moscow suspense, September 1, 2004

By 

Lynn Harnett (Marathon, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cover Story (Mass Market Paperback)

A former Moscow bureau chief for "Newsweek," Cullen offers a bleak picture of the new Russia in this 1994 novel of international intrigue.

While reporting on stalled Arab-Israeli peace talks in Moscow, Colin Burke, savvy correspondent for an American weekly newsmagazine, is sent on the trail of a story broken by CNN - the Syrians are recruiting nuclear scientists from Russia. At the same time his editor wants a feature on the Moscow Jewish community.

The latter assignment leads to a beautiful Israeli woman Burke immediately suspects is an Israeli agent. But Burke suspects everyone - overfriendly Russian journalists, his sources, his neighbors.

The former assignment leads to a shadowy Arab, a massage and sex club and one of Russia's "secret" industrial cities, where he browbeats a Russian scientist into admitting he's sold out to Syria. But when Burke goes back for photos, the scientist has disappeared and a source is murdered.

There's plenty of drab Moscow color and gritty hardship amid the swirling puzzle of truths, deceptions and cynicism. Burke is sharp and the occasional hole in the plot appears with the reader's unwillingness to believe this veteran could be so easily led. But Cullen puts his feel for Moscow and the workaday news biz together with a jaded but conscientious journalist to produce a well-written and absorbing novel of suspense.

4.0 out of 5 stars satisfying, October 13, 2000

By 

Orrin C. Judd "brothersjudddotcom" (Hanover, NH USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cover Story (Mass Market Paperback)

Robert Cullen's previous book The Killer Department was a terrific true examination of the difficulty of tracking down a serial killer in a Soviet Union which denied the possibility that Communist Society could produce such a being.

His novel Cover Story is several years old and appears to be out of print, which is a shame because it couldn't be any more topical. A veteran magazine journalist is covering a Middle East Peace mediation in Moscow that is being hosted by Gorbachev and Jimmy Carter. He begins investigating the rumor that Syria has obtained nuclear weapons and soon stumbles into an attempt to use Arab fronts to hire Russian nuclear physicists for Haffez Assad's bomb program. All the while his efforts are shadowed by an Israeli teacher who seems to be working for the Mossad and a neophyte Russian journalist who seems to be working for Russian intelligence.

With the vivid depiction of a crumbling Russia, Middle East peace talks and renegade nuclear programs, the plot could be taken from today's headlines. Cullen drops in a couple twists & hastens the action along to a satisfying conclusion

GRADE: B+