The Venetian Judgment-David Stone

The Venetian Judgment
David Stone
Putnam, Apr 2009, $25.95
ISBN: 0399155732

In Venice, CIA "cleaner" Micah Dalton vows to kill the Serbian Mafioso who murdered his lover Cora Vasari. When an opportunity arises to assassinate one of the gangsters, Micah takes it as he focuses on Mirko Belajic, a peripheral player in the death of his beloved.

In London the CIA brass fears a well placed mole has killed elderly Mildred Durant, an adviser to the NSA decryption Glass Cutters team. The agency knows of Micah’s Cold War decoding experience and that the Soviets had going back to Stalin and probably still have an inside source. They draft Dalton to uncover the identity of the current traitor who killed Durant in her home.

The third Dalton espionage thriller (see THE ECHELON VENDETTA and The Orpheus Deception) is an exciting action-packed tale from the opening sequence in Venice where the hero is cleaning up the Serbian mob that killed his beloved and takes off from there. The story line is fast-paced as Dalton and his CIA partner travel to Istanbul and Florida in search of the traitor. Although his partner is a stereotype of the sub-genre, fans will enjoy Dalton’s latest tale, which contains an intriguing historical twist back to the FDR Administration.

Harriet Klausner