This is the newest and most compelling of

Michael Sinclair s novels of international es-

pionage. It begins when Marlin Ness, a

somber and cynical professor of history at

Columbia University, arrives in Bucharest on

a research project and by accident or design is

drawn into both the currcnt undercover efforts

of a nation desperately trying to remain free

under the looming threat of the Soviet at her

northern border and a mystery which began a

century ago.

Ness discovers that the violent death of a

young Scotswoman during the 1877 bom-

bardment of the Danube Delta by the Russian

Imperial Fleet is inextricably linked to

present-day intrigues of Eastern Europe.

In unraveling that ancient mystery, Ness

becomes involved with a present mystery, be..

ginning with a Rumanian woman named EI-

vira, ostensibly his guide. Their story moves

across Europe to Scotland, to the Houses of

Parliament (where an assassination takes

place), and to a rousing climax in, of all

places, the reading room of the British

Museum. Ness moves ever more deeply into

a web woven partly from secret historical

intrigue and partly from the current struggle

of two heroic women--one British, one

Rumanian--to serve the cause of freedom in

Rumania. It is a narrative of action, ideas, and

mystery told with compelling skill by an au-

thor who is one of the true craftsmen in the

field of international espionage fiction.