Publisher Description
The "witty, charming, and courageous" CIA agent hunts for a mole inside MI6 in this New York Times–bestselling Cold War thriller series (Publishers Weekly).
Albania may be a small nation, but it's about to become the front line of the Cold War. In hopes of toppling the brutal Communist regime that controls the country, the British intelligence service has handpicked an elite group of Albanian freedom fighters to be molded into commandos by Blackford Oakes, the CIA's all-purpose warrior. With the help of MI6's most ruthless clandestine agent, Oakes is charged with turning the Albanians into a team of guerillas who will parachute back into their homeland to fight the good fight—and together, die.
When the Albanian mission ends in disaster, however, Oakes smells a rat inside MI6, and he begins a hunt for the most notorious mole in the history of espionage.
High Jinx is the 7th book in the Blackford Oakes Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Buckley's almostparfit knight Blackford Oakes is in England during 1954 at the start of the seventh story of his escapades. A joint British-American commando team parachutes into Albania to liberate the country but is immediately caught and killed. An "album'' with pictures of the dead soldiers arrives at CIA headquarters in London, whereupon Blackford and his British allies set out to find out how Russian agents knew about the mission in advance. In time, suspicion centers on Engand's great scientist, a Nobel laureate, and his henchman since their days at Trinity College. Leaving Blackford for long stretches, the narrative focuses on Beria, head of the secret police in the USSR, and his efforts to manipulate events after Stalin's death. There is also agitation in Washington, where the Dulles brothers, President Eisenhower and others are disturbed by the possibility that Russia has cracked the code in which messages are exchanged between the U.S. and England. Buckley's ingenious plot and linguistic ballet show him in top form. Literary Guild dual main selection.
