The Lost American — Brian Freemantle

A new British operative in Moscow becomes mired in a web of deceit

The KGB is never surprised. When Jeremy Brinkman''s file lands on the director''s desk, informing him of the new British cultural attaché, the spymaster knows what it means: The Queen has a new agent working in Moscow. To the director, Jeremy is simply another small concern - something to be contained and controlled.

But this new spy is not one for control. Jeremy joined the secret service to get away from his father, and he took an assignment in Moscow because it was supposed to mean autonomy. What he finds there is something else: a suffocating world of expatriates who each night hold the same cocktail parties and tell the same anecdotes. Beneath the façade something big is brewing, but to get to the truth Jeremy will have to navigate a strange society where the diplomats are never as dangerous as their wives.