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Fiction from page 39

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Daniel Silva:

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The Secret Servant

Peter Travers, ROWNO STONE

(G.P. Putnam's Sons; $25.95)
With a long list of best-selling spy novels to his credit, Silva tackles the war on ter-
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heart of Western Europe, where barely integrated Muslim communities are increas-
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In Secret Service

Angelina jolie

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A Mighty Heart

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PAST PERFECT

By Susan Isaacs

(Scribner; 341 pp.; $25)

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June 28 2007

Since 1972

ih37160_

W

hat is espe-
cially remarkable
about writer
Susan Isaacs' 11 novels is the
versatility she demonstrates
in her choice of subject mat-
ter. She has written love
stories, mysteries, family sagas and
about the coming of middle age.
She again breaks new ground with
Past Perfect, choosing to venture
into the world of espionage.
Isaac's protagonist, Katie
Schottland, has spent two years
working for the CIA before being
summarily dismissed. A graduate of
Connecticut College with a major in
economics, she focuses on her con-
tinuing childhood fascination with
reading spy novels and going to spy
movies. After 18 unhappy months of
employment at an investment-bank-
ing firm, Katie happily goes to work
for the CIA, where she initially ana-
lyzes financial data before transfer-
ring to the Office of Eastern Europe
Analysis, an assignment from which
she is fired without explanation.
Katie recovers from this experi-
ence, marrying Adam, a non-Jewish
pathologist with the Bronx Zoo, and
giving birth to their son, Nicky. Her
Upper East Side Jewish family of
achievers helps facilitate her adjust-
ment.
Her mother is a psychiatrist,
her father the successful owner of
a profitable chain of kitchenware
stores and her older sister a pub-
lished poet. Several years into her
happy marriage, Katie writes a well-
received spy novel that becomes
the basis for a weekly television
show featuring the stories she
develops.
Although Katie has some con-

cern about Nicky
being overweight,
generally her
life proceeds
smoothly, until
she receives a
mysterious call
from a former
colleague at the
CIA, Lisa Golding,
who seeks Katie's
help in gaining
access to a TV
news channel to publicize a matter
of "national importance."
For this help, Lisa promises to tell
Katie why she was fired from the
CIA 15 years earlier. Katie is about
to leave to take Nicky to a camp for
overweight boys, so Lisa promises
to call back the next day, a promise
she fails to keep. An exciting chain
of events is set in motion as Katie
tries to track down Lisa and learn
what she was about to disclose.
All sorts of mysterious char-
acters are introduced, including
former CIA operatives and three
East German secret agents who
were relocated to the United
States and given new identities.
Katie travels to Cincinnati, the Blue
Ridge Mountains of North Carolina,
Washington, D.C., and Tallahassee,
Fla., in search of information.
Dead bodies turn up, and Katie's
life is endangered.
Isaacs skillfully grips the atten-
tion of her readers as the story
unfolds. She manages to portray
captivating and fully rounded family
relationships as the tale of intrigue
simultaneously develops.
Once again, Isaacs has fully
demonstrated why her books win
awards, become bestsellers and
get translated into many different
languages. Past Perfect will aug-
ment and amplify the well-deserved
esteem in which she is held.

— Morton 1. Teicher