Limited Options

In this international thriller set in London, Geneva and their environs, a left-wing terrorist group maneuvers to escape capture after assassinating important Western politicians. The gang's principals are Horst Zabel, scion of a professional family, and Trina Hansen, also of the upper-middle class, both fanatical ideologues and totally amoral. They enlist the unwilling aid of British diplomat Rory Maidment by kidnapping and holding hostage his nine-year-old son. Concluding that it's hopeless to seek help from the authorities, Maidment decides he must act alone to save the boy. The author of A Matter of Conscience has produced an entertaining narrative, but this fictional territory has been covered many times before. (May)