Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner
The Cancelled Czech
Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Lawrence Block
Class/Genre: Mystery
Series: Evan Tanner # 2
Signet, Mar 1999, $5.99, 224 pp.
The CIA was immediately ruled out for this covert operation because failure could lead to terrible repercussions for the present administration. Besides which, no one would believe a renegade like Evan Tanner would be employed by the Feds. Thus, the ultra-top secret agency turns to free lance Tanner to pull off the job. All Evan has to do is to abduct Janos Kotacek, a prisoner of the Czechoslovakian government, who is bound to be convicted and hanged for his activities.
Janos may be elderly and dying, but his role as the head of the fourth Reich makes him very valuable to United States spy operations. Unbeknownst to him, his group has been infiltrated, making it easy to keep insider tabs on the criminal, his associates, and his operations. His untimely death would leave the spy agencies seeking new sources. Evan travels by train into Czechoslovakian, but is quickly in trouble. Someone set him up to be detained by the police. With assistance, he manages to escape, but his plan is already off-stride and a large manhunt has begun to thwart his efforts.
THE CANCELED CZECH is a reprint of a classic Tanner spy tingler that, in spite of the wall tumbling down, remains a fast-paced, insightful look back at the Cold War. The story line is a delight and the support cast adds an authentic Eastern European feel to the tale. However, it is the spy who never sleeps, Evan tanner, in one of his best adventures, that keeps this period piece a fabulous entertaining novel.
Harriet Klausner
Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner
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