Viktor – a haunted spyJo Calman Casey J SmithLabel: Troubador PublishingDescription: In the early 1980s the world was on the brink of a nuclear Armageddon. Trust between the USA and the Soviet Union was at an all-time low suspicion and fear ruled as each side believed that the other was planning an imminent attack. Against this background Viktor Gumnov a KGB officer is sent with his family on a secret mission to Washington charged with the task of finding a way in which the Soviet Union could win such a war.While there Viktor comes to the conclusion that if the American people could be provoked into mass panic it would be possible to initiate a series of manufactured natural disaster to take out most key parts of the eastern United Staes.Despite planning America’s defeat his fear that a forthcoming NATO exercise would be seen by Moscow as cover for a genuine attack prompts Viktor to try to get a vital message to the Soviet leadership. He emphasises that his well-placed contacts insist that the NATO exercise is just that not cover for the real thing. Moscow is sceptical but the world survives.Based on a true story this is a tale of high-stakes espionage as it really happened and of how a potential global catastrophe was averted. It is a human story of courage and ingenuity and a quest for understanding.
