"Intricate and compelling ... Ted Allbeury is one of the most skilled wordsmiths we've got, ranking with le Carré, Deighton, Forsyth, and Gardner." -- The Gloucester Citizen, U.K. "Ted Allbeury is one of our best spy writers, quiet, thoughtful, and menacingly compelling." -- The Birmingham Post, U.K. "Absorbing and sturdily crafted." -- The Literary Review A gripping tale of love and treachery, this novel by a former British intelligence officer explores the reasons why men and women betray their countries and each other. The cast includes Jan Massey, Head of British Intelligence in Berlin and a passionate anti-Communist who falls in love with the wife of a KGB officer; Arthur Johnson, a lowly signalman in the Berlin office who dreams of money and power; civil servant Eric Mayhew, stung by an unjust act of authority; and mathematician Jimbo Vick, lured into betrayal by a seductive Soviet agent. Although they operate under different motivations and circumstances, their roles in the intelligence community will connect them as they frantically attempt to evade a day of reckoning. "No one twitches the strings more expertly than Allbeury," noted The Observer, and indeed, Ted Allbeury's experience as a Cold War-era spy adds a thrilling realism to this story of the egotism, passion, and desperation that underlie acts of treason.