RUSSIAN ROULETTE

RUSSIAN ROULETTE (Dell, 1975) by British author James Mitchell is a wicked little spy novel. The KGB has captured one of Britain's top spies. They'll release him only if British intelligence will allow their top agent, Callan, to be assassinated. The powers that be agree to these terms and three unknown assassins are sent to London to track and kill Callan.

The odds are stacked against the intrepid British spy. He's cut off from all of his usual resources and is forced to burrow deep into the London underworld for survival. His only allies are a two-bit thief (Callan did jail time with the man) and a beautiful nurse. Oh, and to complicate matters even further, Callan, after repeated blows to the head in his deadly trade, is going blind.

Any one who tries to help Callan pays a high price. One man has his face sliced to ribbons. Another woman is blown up by a bomb in a flat. But Callan eventually achieves the upper hand on his adversaries and confronts a fourth killer (whose identity was not a surprise) in the final chapters. The action is brisk, the narrative fast paced, the locale colorful and finely evoked with interesting, well-drawn characters.

Callan appeared in a previous novel by Mitchell, A RED FILE FOR CALLAN, which I'll have to hunt for. RUSSIAN ROULETTE is a winner. Check it out.