The Wolf at the Door by Jack Higgins **

What was the biggest terrorist story ... before 9/11? Irish Republican Army? Russian Mafia? Algerian arms dealers? The Russian secret service? Why bother to decide, just throw them all together in a plot that is both transparent and confused ... and you have The Wolf at the Door - the latest novel by Jack Higgins, who I suspect is stuck in the twentieth century, as suggested by his publicity photo sitting in front of a typewriter - and a manual one at that!

The story - not actually a thriller as there is no suspense or tension - follows an aborted assassination plot from several points of view, none of which I found particularly engaging. This is certainly a case where the synopsis far exceeds the reading. Lots better is available, unless you've read everything else about the cold war and miss it terribly.