Vortex of Fear

In 1989, with their oil-rig company facing hard times, George and Harriet Donovan welcome a friend's offer of a million-dollar job in Kuwait. But almost immediately, they are caught in an international plot to provoke the Gulf war. The conspirators, headed by billionaire oilman Adrian Potter, were responsible for JFK's assassination and ever since have used governments as their pawns, CIA agents as their hit men. Carrying incriminating videotapes, George and Harriet become targets of a hunt that ranges across Europe, through Cuba and back to Texas. If the plot is handicapped by the over-the-top conspiracy theory, the Donovans are unusual and likable protagonists. Surviving by skill, courage and the aid of good, ordinary people determined to thwart evil, the couple owe more to the heroes of WW II resistance novels than those of Cold War thrillers. The Donovans are committed Christians who draw strength from the Bible, and if initially George's use of scripture to repel an attempted seduction seems incongruous, it is also refreshing to find a techno-thriller hero as much in control of his zipper as of his trigger finger. Readers don't need to buy into either the Donovans' religious beliefs or the conspiratorial premise to find this suspenseful first novel an appealingly different summer read. (Aug.)