DEAD MEN LIVING: A CHARLIE MUFFIN THRILLER by Brian Freemantle
Thomas Dunn, St. Martin's, June 2000
Charlie Muffin intends to live out his life with his Russian love--which isn't easy considering that he is a British agent and she a member of the Russian (post Soviet) police. The discovery of two corpses in a frozen gulag area, corpses of British and American officers from the World War II era, make peaceful existence impossible. Unless Muffin solves the ancient mystery, he is likely to be recalled to London.
Nothing is exactly as it should be. The soldiers are reported as dead all right, but their bodies are neatly buried in central Europe. And somebody at high levels in the British, American, and Russian governments, desperately wants to keep the mystery unsolved--even if it means sending a CIA assassin to do away with Muffin.
Brian Freemantle writes convincingly about post-Soviet Russia, the feudal breakdown in its government and the surviving vestiges of its authoritarian past. Muffin is an intriguing character, a man who has learned to trust no one, and who is forcing himself to trust a woman who could destroy him. In addition to Muffin, Freemantle has drawn out a number of fascinating characters especially Miriam Bell, sexy FBI operative in Moscow and Muffin protege. Anyone who has worked in a government agency, or any office for that matter, will recognize the internal politics that constantly threatens to destroy Muffin and justifies his attitude.
Three Star
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