CATEGORY

Frederick Forsyth, best known for his spy novels The Day of The Jackal and The Odessa File, sets this post-communist thriller during 1999 in Russia, a land whose current stresses have worsened to breaking point. Ex-C.I.A. agent Jason Monk is sent in by a clandestine western group to try and stop the election of a sinister nationalist, Igor Komarov, who seems about to be installed in the Kremlin. The Russian Mafia and Komarov's nationalist militia make nasty enemies. As usual Forsyth gives his story an authentic feel with minute attention to detail and the use of real public figures in the background.