From Publishers Weekly
Tom Croft, the hero of this absorbing, fast-paced thriller, has quit the top-secret, CIA-backed organization known as the Exchange. Disgusted with his own soiled hands, he retires to lead a very private life in upstate New York. Trouble is, the Exchange doesn't want to let him go. Even more to the point, they want him to kill his old friend, former agent Gray Wolf, who has gone freelance. Croft flatly refuses but is told he has little choice: Gray Wolf already assumes he has taken the job and will be coming for him first. Croft goes on the run, hoping to find Gray Wolf and convince him that he is no longer a "player." He's accompanied by his new lover, whom he at first suspected of being an agent in the employ of either the Exchange or Gray Wolf himself but whose background has stood up to his thorough investigation. As violence stalks their path, the woman, Meredith Kellerman, begins to fall apart under the pressure of life underground, even as their love for each other grows stronger. Many readers will be expecting the plot twist near the end, but Frey's ( Came a Dead Cat ) finale delivers a powerful jolt. Mystery Guild alternate.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
A single-minded duel of tough, tough former operatives for the CIA-based Exchange--one retired, one feared lost to the opposition-- now turned against each other. Tom Croft, the retiree, just wants to be left alone. Haunted by his memories of Vietnam and the brutality of the Exchange--especially the disastrous job that drove him to quit--he's retreated to inoffensive Amber, New York, where he doesn't even have a phone. But when he turns down the Exchange's request to kill his old buddy Theodore Fairweather, a.k.a. Gray Wolf, he's warned that Gray Wolf, who knows everything, will assume he's taken the job and come after him first. Tom does just what you'd expect--runs an exhaustive check on red-haired Meredith Kellerman, the new lady in town who's exactly the kind of person the Exchange would send to snuggle up to him--and then, after his dog is killed, he takes off with snuggling Meredith for New York (where Gray Wolf kills everybody but the principals), Mexico (where a car bomb takes care of Meredith), Indonesia (where maddened Tom finally goes after Gray Wolf but just misses), and Dublin (the payoff). This straight-arrow plot--your grandmother could predict the one twist that's saved for the last chapter--is spiced with periodic flashbacks to the killing scenes that bonded predator and prey, and with an impressive catalogue of killing hardware, every item of which gets demonstrated on live targets. Frey (Came a Dead Cat, 1991, etc.) aims for Hemingway but settles for Spillane. Recommended for high-energy addicts a lot more credulous than the hero. --
Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
