Publisher's Weekly
The apparent suicide of a Cambridge University graduate student begins as a routine case for detective sergeant Derek Smailes, but dark political secrets half a century old soon surface, suggesting that Simon Bowles's death might well have been a murder. Smailes, the engaging hero of this atmospheric thriller, is a most unusual CID detective: he wears lizard-skin cowboy boots, loves the music of Willie Nelson and is generally obsessed with all things American. He discovers that Bowles, a mathematical genius, had recently been subjecting historical events to strict logical analysis, developed a compelling theorem pinpointing the real murderer of John F. Kennedy and begun work on identifying the long-rumored ''Fifth Man'' in the notorious group of Soviet spies recruited at Cambridge during the 1930s. Smailes's investigations lead to startling revelations about Bowles and his research, as well as the detective's own deceased policeman father, the beautiful American graduate student to whom Smailes is attracted and the murky world of international espionage. In his first novel, Cambridge graduate Cape expertly mixes just enough fact with fiction to keep his readers intrigued and entertained. Mysterious Book Club selection.

Library Journal
An entertaining first effort combining the mystery and spy genres. Simon Bowles's apparent suicide intrigues British detective Smailes because the deceased was working on identifying the fifth man in the so-called Ring of Five group of Cambridge spies. The story unfolds delicately, luring Smailes into a web of Communist intrigue in England in the early 1980s. Along the way, Smailes becomes involved in a torrid love affair with a college student who knows more about the case than she admits. Although the story is interesting, filled with several twists, it is a bit anticlimactic to discover that Detective Smailes solves the untimely death of Simon Bowles in the same manner that Columbo did (and a number of other detectives as well) in an episode of that 1970s TV show, by reading the used portion of a typewriter ribbon. Although slow moving at times, this shows promise for a new writer. Mystery Book Club selection.--James Picerno, ''Business Facilities,'' Red Bank, N.J.

Genre: Mystery