Wolstencroft,
David. Contact Zero. Dutton. Sept 2005. c. 400p. ISBN 0-525-94902-X.
Fiction.
A recent intake class of Security Intelligence
Service agents assigned to the same project has been cut loose
by MI6 under the accusation of treason. Their covers blown,
at least six of the ten are quickly murdered; three of the
survivors band together in an attempt to track down Contact
Zero, a rumored person or organization that is said to shelter
agents who have nowhere else to turn. Unsure of whom to trust
and with their lives increasingly at risk, the three young
agents unlock a series of clues, penetrating layer after layer
of secrecy. As they move ever closer to Contact Zero, they
must deal with not only the possibility that one of them may
be a traitor to their cause, but also that their own service
is sacrificing them as pawns in a gambit whose goal is unknown
to them. Wolstencroft (Good News, Bad News), creater of the
BBC spy drama MI-5, does a fine job of weaving arcane bits
of tradecraft, intriguing back stories, and introspective moments
into the novel’s action-packed sequences. Numerous elements,
many unexpected, dovetail into a satisfying conclusion. Recommended
for most popular fiction collections.