THE ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT

In this densely plotted, improbable thriller, a CIA assassin of impeccable integrity has to be eliminated to save his lady boss's hide. Somehow he escapes from all the traps laid for him, but can he ultimately save himself and his family from the power of America's secret govern-ment, as well as the Russian mafia? Maybe--with a little help from his friends, one of whom is "deus ex machina"--without whom the book would be half as long and the hero twice as dead. Martin Jarvis plods through the ever-thickening plot as if he couldn't wait to get out of the studio. But Jarvis's worst is still better than most narrators' best. Aficionados of this type of writing will hardly know the difference. Y.R. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC/JAN 99]