A cat and mouse thriller set in suburban Washington, DC, at the very beginning of the Cold War. A departure from the Lockridges' usual fare, this suspenseful tale of spy vs. spy, in which the protagonists fairly consistently trust the wrong people and run from the good guys, would have worked very well as a fast-paced TV drama. Not my usual fare, either, and I much prefer the lighter entertainment of Pam and Jerry North's escapades, or the puzzle-solving of Captain Heimrich and his lovely Susan. Well-plotted and curiously not as dated as it might be given the subject matter. ( )