cover image Spy in a Little Black Dress

Spy in a Little Black Dress

Maxine Kenneth. Grand Central, $14.99 trade paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-446-56742-8

Camelot-worshippers will best appreciate this clumsy sequel to 2011%E2%80%99s Paris to Die For from Kenneth (the writing team of Ken Salikoff and Maxine Schnall). In 1951, Allen Dulles, deputy director of the CIA, encourages Jackie Bouvier, still a trainee spy (while keeping her cover job as a photographer/writer for the Washington Times-Herald), to get to know Jack Kennedy in order to make the young Congressman %E2%80%9Ca friend of the CIA.%E2%80%9D But the primary plot line revolves around Cuba and the CIA%E2%80%99s desire to know the intentions of the young Fidel Castro. The book teems with such real-life notables as Ernest Hemingway, Frank Sinatra, and Grace Kelley, who provide period color but otherwise play no meaningful roles. While there%E2%80%99s enough action to fill a miniseries%E2%80%94kidnappings, escapes, explosions%E2%80%94not a single scene rings true. Leaden prose doesn%E2%80%99t help. Agent: Melissa Chinchillo, Fletcher and Parry. (Oct.)