David McCloskey, whose Damascus Station was a brilliant debut, has followed it in quick succession with a Russian-based story, Moscow X, and now The Seventh Floor. The pace of all three books is matched by the speed with which they have been produced; and for all The Seventh Floor’s strengths,the haste is beginning to show.
Like the earlier two thrillers, it starts with a bang – or rather a crunch, when a Russian spy, called home peremptorily from Greece by his superiors, bites into a disguised cyanide capsule before the State security apparatus can question him. Almost simultaneously, another Russian spook, named Golikov, has a clandestine meeting in Singapore with Sam Joseph, a CIA officer known to us from Moscow X. Golikov tersely warns the American that there is a mole working at the highest level of the Agency; but he is then promptly murdered and Joseph is abducted by the Russians. Despite grotesque, prolonged bouts of interrogation, Joseph manages to persuade the Russians he has been told nothing of importance by Golikov, and is eventually released as part of a spy swap.
Enter Artemis Procter, the aggressive, entirely fearless CIA operative who also figures in the earlier books. Out of the blue, she finds herself cashiered for the failure of an earlier mission; a senior colleague, convinced the Agency has been penetrated, is also axed. But when Procter learns of Golikov’s warning from Joseph, she sets off on an unauthorised hunt for the mole, and soon has a list of four suspects, all with Russian experience and known informally by their peers as the Russia Mafia.
What follows is well written and tautly paced, with many touches that show off McCloskey’s much-vaunted insider knowledge.
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