The Double Man Author:William S. Cohen, Gary Hart Tangled conspiracy theories and lackluster thriller action from two hitherto-respectable US Senators - whose insider status (as past/present members of the Select Committee on Intelligence) may lead some readers to take this more seriously than they would other, similar concoctions. In near-future Washington, global terrorism has gotten ou... more »t of hand: the family of the Secretary of State has just been ambushed and murdered. Whodunit? Well, from the start, the reader knows that the terrorism-mastermind is Cyril Metrinko, KGB colonel and chief of USSR counterintelligence, who (without Politburo knowledge) is conducting a bloody private war against detente. What the reader doesn't know, however, is the identity of Metrinko's high-placed "mole" in Washington. And Sen. Thomas Chandler, head of the new task force on terrorism, doesn't know anything - until he begins his talky, repetitious investigations. Are these recent assassinations connected to Mafia hitmen? To the Florida drug-trade? To Cuba? To the JFK assassination? (Castro's revenge!) To "the CIA assassination planning unit, codenamed ZRRIFLE?" Furthermore: why is Chandler being so nastily stonewalled by the CIA and FBI? Are they protecting the skeletons in their closets? Those are just a few of the familiar conspiracy-questions for Chandler - who gets all sorts of cryptic clues from an anonymous informant he calls "Memory." Meanwhile, he's falling in love with assistant Elaine Dunham - who a) is secretly, reluctantly working for the CIA, and b) has a whoppingly coincidental connection to Cuba, ZRRIFLE, and "Memory." Meanwhile, too, Chandler's ex-father-in-law - who just happens to be deeply involved in the drug/Mafia/Cuba labyrinth - spearheads a scheme to frame Chandler as a USSR spy. And finally, after a disjointed flurry of jet-hops and killings (Elaine is among the fatalities), Chandler allows himself to be kidnapped to Moscow ... where, presumably in a sequel, he'll find out the identity of that high-placed D.C. mole. Tedious convolutions, heaving coincidences, cardboard people in grinding slow motion - but more than a few fans of Ludlum-esque conspiracy/spy muddles will be attracted (if ultimately disappointed) by the authors' exploitation of their congressional positions. (Kirkus Reviews)« less