WHAT SIDE AM I ON? GERALD SEYMOUR'S "TIMEBOMB"

The year is 1993.  The Soviet Union has not only fallen apart, but is bankrupt as well.  Oleg Yashkin, a senior KGB at a nuclear facility, is let go without any hope of a steady pension.  Enraged at being kicked to the curb after years of faithful service, Oleg steals a nuclear weapon – a suitcase bomb or a dirty bomb as it is more often called.  Oleg buries the bomb in a vegetable garden behind his home.  The weapon cannot explode without a precursor agent combined with military dynamite, but once they are added it can easily destroy the center of a city like New York, Paris or London.

Fifteen years later, Oleg finds a buyer for the weapon.  He sets off with the help of his friend Igor Molenkov, who was also dismissed from the KGB, to deliver the bomb to Russian mafia chief Reuven Weissberg.  The crime lord insists that the weapon be delivered to him in Poland.  So Oleg and Igor begin their journey, driving an old Soviet made truck with the bomb hidden under a tarp.

Christopher Lawson, a 38 year veteran of Britain’s MI6, has received intelligence about the sale of the dirty bomb.  Weissberg, with the help of his money launderer Joseph Goldmann and two Russian body guards (Viktor and Mikhail) plans to pay the two former KGB officers one million American dollars for the weapon.  Reuven will then sell it for ten million dollars to an operative from the Middle East.

Johnny Carrick, a former British paratrooper, is working as a driver for Josef Goldmann,

Weissberg’s money man.  Carrick is really an undercover cop.  So far he has not been able to find any evidence to arrest Goldmann for his money laundering activities.  MI6 officer Lawson has Johnny seconded to his agency.  Lawson then uses one of his operatives to set up a fake assassination attempt against Josef Goldmann.  Carrick “saves” his boss’ life, thereby becoming invaluable to Goldmann.  The mafia money man is so impressed with Johnny’s heroism that he includes Carrick on his trip to Poland.

Christopher Lawson and seven MI6 operatives follow Goldmann and company to Poland.  The brusque rude Lawson does nothing to convince Carrick that he is being protected by MI6.  Quite the opposite – Johnny is made to feel that he has been set adrift among the Russians.  When Viktor and Mikhail “test” Johnny with threats of physical harm, only Reuven Weissberg stands up for him.  Carrick then becomes the mafia leader’s personal bodyguard.

Reuven also educates Johnny about his grandmother’s time as an inmate at the Sobibor extermination camp.  Her experiences at Sobibor are the main reason why Reuven became a distrustful vindictive crime boss.  As time goes on Carrick feels much closer to Weissberg than he does to any MI6 operative.

Gerald Seymour is a true master of the suspense genre.  His plots are multi-layered and his characters are fascinating as well as being true to life.  I didn’t know how “Timebomb” was going to finish until I reached the last few pages of the book.  The conclusion, however, was so perfect that “Timebomb” could not have ended any other way.  I hope Gerald Seymour continues to write his nail biting psychological thrillers for years to come.

THOMAS AND CHARLOTTE PITT SAVE ENGLAND FROM SPIES AND ANARCHISTS - ANNE PERRY'S "DORCHESTER TERRACE"

“Dorchester Terrace” is Anne Perry’s 27^th Thomas and Charlotte Pitt mystery.  The year is 1896 and Thomas Pitt has just become head of Scotland Yard’s Special Branch.  The former head, Victor Narraway, was forced to resign after becoming involved in a scandal not of his own making.  (This incident is related in Perry’s previous Pitt book “Treason at Lisson Grove”.)

Thomas is the son of a gamekeeper and many important Londoners doubt his ability to run Special Branch.  At the beginning of “Dorchester Terrace” Pitt’s assistant, Stoker, tells his boss of rumors concerning Duke Alois Habsburg, a minor member of the Austrian royal family.  The rumors indicate that the duke may be assassinated when he makes a visit to London.  Thomas is able to find evidence that these reports are possibly true, but Britain’s Foreign Minister refuses to even consider the possibility that the duke could be murdered in London.  The Foreign Minister does not even want to meet with Pitt.  He sends his assistant Jack Radley (who is Pitt’s brother-in-law) to get rid of the pesky Pitt.  Pitt insists, however, on only speaking to the Foreign Minister, who dismisses Pitt from his office after telling him that he has been promoted beyond his abilities.

At the same time Charlotte Pitt’s (Charlotte is Thomas’ upper class wife) aunt Lady Vespasia Cumming-Gold is very worried about her old friend Lady Serafina Montserrat.  Serafina was a freedom fighter during the Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire.  Now she is old and in declining health.  Her mind begins to wander and Serafina is afraid she may reveal important secrets without meaning to.  Lady Montserrat is so worried that she fears she may be murdered if she unintentionally reveals delicate information in front of the wrong person.  Lady Montserrat’s niece, Nerissa Freemarsh, thinks Serafina is just imagining things and that her aunt doesn’t have any secrets worth worrying about.  Lady Vespasia takes Serafina’s worries seriously, but Nerissa doesn’t listen to her either.

Before much time has passed Lady Montserrat is found dead.  After an autopsy, it is discovered that she died from a massive overdose of laudanum.  There is no way Lady Montserrat could have administered the laudanum to herself.  Obviously, her worst fears were correct – Lady Serafina Montserrat was murdered.

Pitt believes that the death of Serafina is connected to the rumored assassination attempt on the Austrian duke.  With the help of Victor Narraway, Charlotte Pitt, Lady Vespasia (and of course Stoker and the other agents of Special Branch) Pitt begins to unravel the many layers of these mysteries.  It even begins to look like someone in the British government may be behind both Lady Montserrat’s murder and the attempt to kill Duke Alois Habsburg.

Anne Perry has written a fascinating thriller.  Pitt, not knowing whom he can trust, proves to upper class Londoners (and especially himself) that he is the right man to head Special Branch.  For the most part Perry has done her research on the history of England and Europe in the years leading up to World War I.  I only have one small complaint about the historical accuracy of “Dorchester Terrace”.  At one point, Perry has a character lecture Pitt on European geopolitical affairs.  That individual tells Pitt that the Russian government is run from Moscow.  But in the years before the 1917 Russian Revolution, St. Petersburg was Russia’s capital.  It is a very minor flaw but I’m confused about why no one involved in the publication of “Dorchester Terrace” caught this error.

As already stated, “Dorchester Terrace” is a very absorbing mystery with rich characters and many twists and turns.  I am looking forward to Thomas Pitt’s next case as head of Special Branch.