CATEGORY

A smart girl who ought to know better gets trapped by greed and sex in a fraud that will ruin her life unless she can outrun it. And she does, taking advantage of a friend's ticket on a luxury European cruise to plan her next step. But then fate gets in Hannah Gray's way, in the form of a murdered scientist whose secret formula ends up in her possession. Eluding the assasains who slay their way through the Greek Islands in search of the formula, and the spies who track her through Istanbul, Hannah never quite figures out why a few lines scribbled on the flyleaf of the scientist's guidebook are so important; in a clumsy bit of plotting, they involve the Ultimate, Planet-Busting Weapon, invented by a man with a social conscience who's run away rather than turn them over to a government that might not have one. But she quickly catches on to the fact that they're valuable enough to buy her way out of the trouble she's in and set her up for life, if she can get away from the killers on the ship and the G-men who are waiting on shore to take her into custody. Altman is a solid craftsman who keeps the plot moving swiftly and the scenery vivid and appealing, but it's hard to care much about any of the good and/or bad guys and gals, or even figure out which is which. --Jane Adams