High Jinx

The year is 1954 and Joseph Stalin is dead. As the ruthless Laurenti Beria head of the KGB plots to succeed him another drama is taking place in a distant part of the Soviet empire. United States and British commandoes have begun a mission to overthrow the Soviet-controlled government of Albania but it is doomed to failure from the outset--jinxed by a traitor.<P>In the aftermath of the disaster CIA super spy Blackford Oakes pursues his adversary from a covert camp for training murderers to Buckingham Palace from a KGB hideout in Stockholm to the very doors of the Kremlin. The result is a satisfying tale that brings this episode in the conflict between the West and the Soviet Bloc to a summary conclusion.