cover image Deadly Sonata

Deadly Sonata

Paul Myers. Doubleday Books, $14.95 (217pp) ISBN 978-0-385-26364-1

In Myers's ( Deadly Score ) disappointing fourth mystery, former spy turned musicians' manager Mark Holland travels to Moscow to hear a potential new client, Soviet pianist Viktor Kaverin. Shortly afterward, at a concert in Norway, Kaverin implores Holland to help him and his ballerina sister, Irina, defect to the West. Although he has no desire to reenter the world of espionage, Holland believes in the pianist's talent and reluctantly agrees to help. A seemingly simple plan, involving British and American intelligence services, develops cliched pitfalls and dangers. Holland is astonishingly dim for an ex-spy, failing to spot the discrepancies in Kaverin's story and to notice thestrange behavior as well as the surprising ineptitude of the KGB agents. Myers's knowledge of classical music and its contemporary milieu fails to balance the weak plot, stock characterizations and stilted writing. (Feb.)