Cold War Berlin was a bleak and dangerous city where the blood of the Nazis was still wet on the streets and the cruelty of the Russians was a stench that permeated every breath you took.

Cold War Berlin was where you lived on the edge from minute to minute.

When an aging missile scientist, Rosov Pietrov, goes missing from his Leningrad home, the Russians order master-spy Andrei Peshky to bring him back. But the Russian signals traffic is intercepted - first by the British and then by the Americans -and the message goes out: "Find Pietrov.

Paul Bastia, a young army officer, is sent on the mission by the US. While Harry Thornton, owl-lover and two years from retirement, decides on his own that finding Pietrov first would be ideal the way to crown his British Intelligence career with glory.

Berlin at the height of the Cold War is the wrong place to be playing these games, and as all three men descend on a murky and claustrophobic Berlin suburb, mistaken identity and betrayal lead them to a chilling finish.

Nelson DeMille: "A fast paced, yet marvelously complex story."

BBC Bookworld:"Written in the best spy novel tradition, it's a fascinating mix of fact and fiction."

Irish Times: "It is the style and wit of the dialog that counts here."

Manchester Evening News: "I chuckled all the way through this pot-pourri of five star bungling