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From Publishers WeeklyAt the start of this smart, intriguing puzzle from British author Starling (Vodka), Herbert Smith, "once of the British Army, latterly of MI5" and now a detective with "the Metropolitan Police's Murder Squad," draws the case of a drowned man found in a Hyde Park pond. Normally, this would be a rare occurrence, but it's 1952 and London is gripped in a fog so miasmic that stumbling into a pond can easily be written off as a simple accident. It's not, of course, and Smith's investigations bring him into contact with a scientist who possesses a secret that will change the future; a beautiful, blind police diver, Hannah Mortimer; several Russian spies; British turncoats; and a Nazi so reviled that even today his name evokes absolute evil. Where most thriller writers plumb the depths of imagination for their earth-shattering secrets, Starling does just the opposite by employing the reality of history. It's a difficult trick, but once again he pulls it off with panache. (Mar.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistGloomy post-World War II London is brought to life in this combo espionage tale and noir mystery from former kidnap negotiator Starling. In the winter of 1952, the Great Fog has rolled into London, shutting down most transportation routes and sickening the populace with its noxious haze. Herbert Smith, drummed out of MI5 as the patsy for a bungled Soviet spy caper, is now a detective inspector in the murder division at New Scotland Yard, where he is treated with harsh wariness by his fellow policemen. Assigned to investigate a suspicious drowning, Smith discovers that the victim, a young biochemist and son of a highly placed government official, in the hours before his death had claimed to be in possession of a discovery that could change the world. Smith's inquiries create a panic in the covert world as agents from his own MI5 as well as the Soviet Union and U.S. (along with a renegade Nazi mad scientist) intrude into his investigation. Recommended for fans of le Carre and Forsyth along with readers who enjoy English police procedurals. Michael GannonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved