A Game for Assassins

A member of the CIA has come to Luxembourg to hire Juan Raul Marquez, aka the Catalan, to kill seven soviet agents.  Marquez agrees to the contract and begins planning.  He meets with his former partner, David Gioradze, in Vienna.  Gioradze is not one to turn down such an opportunity, despite living a relaxing life in Portugal.

Unbeknownst to Marquez and his CIA contact, his meeting had been recorded.  The spool of the recording was passed on to the SIS in Vienna.

Several weeks later, in London, the head of the SIS and five men met to discuss the taped recording.  They agree that it appears to be the Americans who are going to be targeting agents.  What to do?  

One of the men at the table outlines a British spy programme, which took some time to establish.  These are the people named on the tape, and in place have been feeding the Russians information and are now trusted by the Russians.  To suddenly pull all of them would make the Russians very suspicious.

One of the men at the table suggests eliminating the assassins before they can get to the agents.  Thus, Operation MACE is born.  The Redaction Unit will use one of its best men, Jack Grant.  Grant doesn’t take to be burdened with a young woman, Nicole Quayle, who has seen the faces of the two men thought to be the assassins.  They would be supported by a team of “Trackers”.  However, they need to get to work quickly because two agents have already been assassinated.

Grant and Quayle go to Paris, which will be their base of operations.  However, before long, they are sent to Marseille by the SIS.  It is here that the assassins have travelled under their aliases, which the SIS now know.  How will they find them in a large city?  Quayle manages to spot one of them, but is unable to follow him.  What to do now?  Can Grant and Quayle get the two assassins before they kill again?

Author James Quinn has written an excellent thriller that will have the reader on the edge of their seat as he takes you throughout Europe in the quest to get the quarry.  KGB and CIA agents will become involved, leading to a shocking conclusion.  An excellent read and very hard to put down.  A good reading start to 2021!