Volunteers

In this political whodunnit set in a future Britain, former radical Lewis Redfern, now a journalist for a major television network, specializes in covering revolutionary groups. When a government minister for Wales is shot, Redfern realizes there is something odd about the assassination attempt. Using his knowledge of the radical underground and his journalistic instinct, he discovers who committed the deed and whyand learns of the Volunteers, an organization that is infiltrating the establishment with ""untainted'' people who eventually will be ordered to topple the system. Redfern disdains the ``naive'' scheme but nonetheless has a crisis of conscience and soon releases a document embarrassing to the government, ironically acting much like a Volunteer himself. Williams, a prolific author of literary, political and cultural criticism and several novels, has written a passable thriller of ideas here. February