The classic techno-thriller of superpower espionage from New York Times bestselling master of suspense Stuart Woods!
Sifting through reams of seemingly unrelated intelligence, CIA analyst Katherine Rule discovers a chilling pattern: an ultrasecret Baltic submarine base...a crafty Russian spy-master in command...a carefully planned invasion about to be launched from dark waters.
Her suspicions, however, are dismissed by those higher up; her theory, they say, is too crazy to be true. But to Katherine, it's just crazy enough to succeed--unless she can stop it. If she's right, an attack sub has already penetrated friendly waters. Worse yet, the enemy has penetrated deep into her own life, so deep she can touch him. And in this game, one wrong touch can mean Armageddon.
The story is told from two alternating viewpoints: the first from CIA department head Katherine Rule who thinks she has discovered a plot in which Russia will be invading Sweden. Not one of her superiors believes her and she must go behind their backs to continue investigating this dire possibility. The other viewpoint is that of a Russian submarine commander, moved from his normal naval command to an elite Russian fighting force, the one being trained for the invasion itself.
The storytelling is competent and not as technologically detailed as a Tom Clancy, making the story, in my opinion, flow more smoothly than Clancy's. I had figured out who the mole in the CIA book was long before the end of the book but it held my interest enough to want to find out how & when Katherine would discover it.
All in all, a nice earlier book by Woods and a step above most of his somewhat cookie-cutter mystery thrillers.
