Olen Steinhauer, 36 Yalta Boulevard

Olen Steinhauer, 36 Yalta Boulevard - In 1966, Major Brano Sev is sent from his Communist nation to Vienna to uncover Code Name Gavrilo, a traitor leaking information to the West. However, the State Security Officer, who has replaced the murdered Kristina Urben, wakes up with amnesia in a park. He learns that the mission was accomplished, but upon disembarking the plane he is arrested for turning traitor too as his assistant Lochert painted quite a spin on what really happened in Vienna.

Brano lives due to the interactions of his former superior, Colonel Cerny. After six months in a factory, Cerny assigns Brano to visit his hometown of Bobrka to interrogate a possible defector Jan Soroka. Welcomed home by his mother, but no one else, as everyone knows what he does for a living, Brano becomes the prime suspect in the murder of Jacob Bieneck. He does little to defend himself against the frame as he assumes this is his cover to enable him to learn the truth. Instead he finds himself back in Vienna wondering who besides Lochert betrayed him and why, but he believes that it is probably too late to prove he did not commit homicide.

This Cold War espionage thriller will remind the audience of the early works of LeCarre although the key protagonist is an Eastern block spy. Brano is a terrific protagonist as he follows orders to such a degree that he jeopardizes himself as he never considered that he was being set up until his forced return to Vienna in spite of Lochert's devastating misinformation campaign. Olen Steinhauer writes another fantastic tale. If you have not read him you are missing quite a suspense treat (see THE CONFESSION and BRIDGE OF SIGHS).

St. Martin's, Jun 2005, $23.95, 320 pp.

ISBN: 0312332017

Harriet Klausner