The Echelon Vendetta

Somebody is killing the former CIA agents who took part in a brilliant but highly illegal top secret operation known as Echelon. A couple of ghosts may also be involved, real or imagined, but they don't interfere with the credibility or the sustained excitement of the pseudonymous Stone's debut thriller. His hero, Micah Dalton, is a "cleaner"—a special operative sent in under cover to make sure no agency dirt gets into the public air. When his friend and colleague, Porter Naumann, is found savagely slaughtered in a Tuscany hotel, Micah tries to find out what happened. Cool and endlessly resourceful, the likable Micah does whatever it takes to clean up the mess. Also memorable are a shrewd Italian policeman, who can tell when something isn't kosher, and Micah's immediate boss, Jack Stallworth, "a short, sharp, bullet-headed hard-nosed razorback hog with all the languid charm of a quick knee to the jaw." The author, who has served in the military and been an intelligence officer, clearly knows his way around the higher levels of official treachery. 75,000 printing. (Feb.)