cover image Stalking-Horse: A Novel of Political Intrigue

Stalking-Horse: A Novel of Political Intrigue

Michael Delahaye. Scribner Book Company, $17.95 (353pp) ISBN 978-0-684-18942-0

Two completely different stories unfold side by side in this intelligent, skillfully composed political thriller. When the author finally synthesizes the two plots, he delivers nothing less than a clever lesson in the perception of time and an unsettling revelation about the treachery of governments. Adrian Medcalfe is an Englishman stationed at NATO headquarters in Brussels. A desk man, he is unexpectedly given a sensitive intelligence assignment: to hook up with a Western agent in Sofia and find out why Bulgarian officials have apparently permitted their own foreign minister to be assassinated. In Washington, Matthew Di Coiano, a specialist with the National Transportation and Safety Board, has been pulled from an outing with his kids to work an entirely different job. He must help an accident investigation team determine why a passenger airplane has crashed in the sea near Cape Cod. Medcalfe and Di Coiano both end up discovering startling information, and both find themselves in unaccustomed danger. Remarkably, Delahaye (On the Third Day) has researched two different organizationsNATO and NTSBin order to write this novel, yet written about both as if he were an insider. He shows a great gift for the most difficult tasks, gently yielding secrets as the plot unfolds and sustaining suspense throughout a tautly paced narrative. (May)