The Last Goodbye

His marriage finished, his business in shambles, ex-CIA agent Marcus Malone agrees to let the US government terminally trash his life in order to set him up to catch a terrorist with plans to level San Diego with a nuclear bomb. The breakneck pace and the hero's James Bondian skills make it work. The secret ingredient to making this small, virtually undetectable nuclear device is Red Mercury and Malone's outlaw status makes him the perfect purveyor. There's only one snag - Malone has fallen in love. At about the time he gets the terrorist's attention, Karen Faulkner decides to come to Prague in search of her lover. The terrorist is almost sympathetic, a stunted horror who survived Nagasaki but lost his family and any chance of normal life. One of life's pleasures is a "pipe garden" where he keeps prisoners confined underground in coffins, connected to the surface by a pipe for water, air, sustenance and sound. He wants revenge and now that he's contracted leukemia from the radiation exposure, he has little time left. No time for playing footsy with arms-dealer Malone. There are lots of improbabilities but Bell keeps the action hopping and the love affair hot. There's plenty of spy craft detail and more than a few skin-of-the-teeth escapes.

I found this book exceptionally well done, since "Malcolm Bell," a "former government employee," has successfully walked the tightrope between being true to the intelligence biz, on the one hand, and writing an exciting story, on the other. Nearly all popular espionage fiction is laughable to anyone who has been in the business, but Bell has captured the true atmosphere without resorting to preposterous inventions. He also draws characters that we actually CARE about, which makes for sleepless nights. I had read this book when it was first published, then came across it and started, in an idle moment, reading it over again. It is as captivating the second time as it was the first, and I can think of no better test of an author's skill. Hopefully, "Mr. Bell" will give us more; I, for one, will be lined up with a fistful of dollars.

I enjoyed this book. Well plotted, a great story line and interesting charachters made for a very fun read that kept me up late to see what would happen next. Gives the word "gardening" a whole new meaning! (I can't divulge what--read it and see for yourself!)