Equinox

After 40 years in the game, Paul Fontana, German-born CIA man, is tired and disillusioned. He tries to retire, but his American boss has plans for him as part of a secret scheme called ""Equinox.'' Fontana's old anti-Nazi mentor Dieter Helm, senior adviser to the Green Party, is kidnapped by international terrorists, including Fontana's teenage granddaughter. Because he possesses documents showing that there are more U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe than anyone suspects, the German government is frantic to retrieve Helm but doesn't tell Gunter Stark, head of Cologne's anti-terrorist bureau, why. Outsiders Fontana and Stark go on the hunt separately; only when they team up do they ``win.'' The cynical secret behind Equinox is somewhat spoiled by a pace bogged down with details about weapons, large cars, graphic violence and gory deaths. A shorter book might have been a better thriller, and the motivation of some charactersthe terrorists especiallyis murky, but foreign correspondent Maxwell's first novel shows promise. (April 29)