Publisher's Weekly
Freemantle (The Blind Run has merged the good humor of a Lawrence Block thriller, the seriousness of a le Carre spy novel and the slam-bang adventure of a popular espionage caper in this newest work about British secret agent Charlie Muffin. Muffin has his detractors in London HQhe dresses sloppily and his loose procedures offend the prigs with bureaucratic powerbut his director, knowing a good man, gives him an assignment anyway: to go to Tokyo and share with the Americans in the reception of KGB defectors Yuri and Irene Kozlov. The CIA men are unhappy that the Soviets have managed to divide the defection between two countries and hope to swipe both husband and wife for themselves. Charlie wouldn't mind grabbing both agents either. And the Kozlovs, under the suspicious eye of their station chief, have certain plans neither ally suspects. When the moves commence, the operation becomes intensely interesting, and at each moment in this thriller the future is exciting and unpredictable.

AudioFile
Charlie Muffin is the world's most unusual, unlikely, yet somehow believable secret agent. As in the earlier novels in this engaging series, Charlie is on the bad side of everyone in his agency except the director. That may or may not hinder him when he is sent to Japan to help the wife of a KGB assassin who is about to defect to the CIA, in order to defect to the British secret service. An elaborate double cross? Perhaps. But Charlie, irreverent, disreputable, and disrespectful as he is, is most of all, very good at what he does. Hayward Morse's version of Charlie is perfect. The combination of grit and resonance in his voice makes him sound like a seedy, aging, footsore operative who has complete confidence in himself, and none in anyone else. His Russians are also entirely believable. A grand listen. R.E.K. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine