There is a pretty good espionage/thriller that came out a while
ago titled "The Glendower Legacy". It has to do with a letter written by
George Washington at Valley Forge surrendering to the British. The letter
is "lost" and then "found" 200 years later.
There is some great stuff in it, especially when two of the "bad
guys" (there are several groups of people after the letter) are pursuing
the hero in a car chase. The bad guys are driving a 1976 red Ford Pinto
and the driver starts cussing because the hero is getting away and the
Pinto can't catch up because it has no pickup. Well, at the time I had a
red 1976 Ford Pinto and I knew exactly what he was talking about.
Anyway, throughout the book the FBI and the KGB are monitoring
what is going on. One agent of each organization meet from time to time
and discuss what is happening. The epilogue is at a baseball game and the
KGB agent is dreading his return to Moscow in faliure (of course the hero
won!). The FBI agent tells him to defect instead, after all there is no
baseball in the Soviet Union.
The great thing was these two agents were more friendly toward
each other than to the people they worked with. I really enjoyed that
part of the book.
BTW--the book was made into a really bad movie starring Elliot
Gould, Kate Jackson (I think) and Rich Little. Before you groan, let me
just say that Rich Little played a serious part in what appeared to be
a thriller/comedy and was the best actor in the movie. I only saw it once,
and you should avoid it like the plague.
Ken Crist
kayuucee@cfar.umd.edu