A GATHERING OF SPIES

It's 1943. A German spy is headed home from America with critical secrets about the state of American bomb-making. The Allies' only hope of stopping her is a British agent with an agenda of his own--to free his wife from a Polish concentration camp. This nail-biting thriller is ably read by Michael Page. Rather than trying to create many voices, he offers a couple of well-read main characters (British and American) and then concentrates on pacing. Page heightens the tension inherent in the story without overdramatizing; he also lifts the listener over the author's occasionally pedestrian writing by focusing on the edge-of-the-seat plot. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/MAR 01]