From Publishers Weekly
Interagency rivalries thwart antiterrorist investigations in this jumbled post-Cold War thriller set in contemporary London. Custom & Excise investigator Alan Rosslyn's policewoman fiancee is about to join MI5 intelligence when she stumbles upon a terrorist bombing attempt and is gunned down by a putative IRA assassin. Rosslyn, who has recently apprehended another IRA operative stockpiling dangerous explosives, joins the task force investigating this latest terrorism. Soon two MI5 agents are blown up in a related murder, and back-stabbing among the nominally cooperating services escalates. As Rosslyn digs deeper into the mystery and begins to suspect collaboration between this deadly bomber and ranking government agents, he becomes a target himself. While Gadney's (Nightshade) plot-driven narrative seeks to vilify the dangerous confusion of competing intelligence agencies, the result is even more confusing for the reader. None of these characters emerges as particularly memorable or convincing, episodes of climactic action are difficult to follow and clever plot twists are all but lost in the obscurity.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Library Journal
A young woman, a police officer by training, is involved with a vicious lover whose nickname is, appropriately, Thug. When she falls for a mild-mannered customs inspector, she nearly rids herself of Thug, but at a crucial moment she falls victim to a horrendous IRA attack. Her good lover sets out to track down her killer, unknowingly shadowed by Thug, who can pull strings from his lofty position in the government. Gadney (Cry Hungry!, LJ 10/15/86) has an excellent feel for his female characters. They inhabit with equal power the sides of good and evil, a distinction that Gadney blurs to great effect as he explores the pernicious connections linking Irish and English factions in this old and bloody vendetta. Though reliant on all the modern trappings, Gadney does not load up his story with technical details and thus produces a spare, controlled novel that packs the punch of an automobile crammed with explosives. For most popular political suspense collections.?Barbara Conaty, Library of Congress
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.