Change of Heart

Change of Heart, Jack Allen, Burping Frog Publishing, 2001

Joshua McGowan works for US Naval Intelligence. He is pulled out of an assignment and sent to eastern Russia to escort Valeria Konstantinova, a former KGB spy, to America. She is busted out of a Russian prison by the CIA; it's part of the price demanded by Colonel Mironov, a former KGB officer and head of a secret faction of the Communist Party. Mironov is ready to give the location of Dr. Otto Jones, an American scientist who defected several years previously with the formula for an undetectable plastic explosive. Of course, Mironov has his own plans for Valeria.

Valeria also has her own plans. In northern Japan, she eludes Josh and calls her lover, the brother of one of the most powerful Russian mafia families, leaving Josh in the hands of the Japanese police.

Josh takes a side trip to western Iraq, to help the Mossad destroy a shipment of the plastic explosives sold to an Iraqi terrorist group. Back in Moscow, Valeria's lover gives the location of Dr. Jones. Josh plans on returning the doctor to America for trial, but Valeria kills him to keep him from hindering her own plans.

Mironov is ready to force the return of the Communist Party by taking Valeria, who Mironov has used as a high-class prostitute, to the floor of the Russian Parliament. Showing Russian democracy as weak, he will then demand a vote on restoring the Communists to power. Josh is the only one in the way.

This is a real gem of a story. It's very well done, it keeps the reader involved from the beginning, it's very plausible and the characters are real people. I am looking forward to any sequels that might come in the future.