The Crossing
1987, New English Library, UK hardcover edition, 224 pages. The story begins with the Russian revolution and a young English sailor who jumps ship and commits himself to the Bolshevik cause. The author weaves his novel around the 1960 real-life downing of American pilot Francis Gary Powers, who was shot down while on a spy mission over the Soviet Union. British spy catcher Joe Shapiro is involved in the hunt to track down and incriminate Russian agents known to the west. There is a "... web of lies and deception behind the exchange of spies" and secrets that must not be revealed.
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Ted Allbeury
Ted Allbeury (1917–2005) was an intelligence officer with Great Britain's Special Operations Executive during World War II; afterward, he ran agents between East and West Germany. Allbeury's firsthand Cold War experiences enliven his espionage novels, and he was praised by the New York Times Book Review as "a most knowledgeable chronicler of espionage" and by Booklist as "a master of the genre." Allbeury has been compared to John le Carré, Brad Thor, and Frederick Forsyth. The movie Blue Ice with Michael Caine was based on his characters, and his book No Place to Hide was adapted as Hostage starring Sam Neill. BBC Radio 4 has adapted his novels The Other Side of Silence, Pay Any Price, No Place to Hide, The Lonely Margins, and Deep Purple for radio broadcast. Allbeury is the author of over 40 books — many under the pen name of Patrick Kelly and Richard Butler — including A Choice of Enemies, Snowball, The Judas Factor, The Seeds of Treason, and Shadow of a Doubt. Despite being written decades ago, his bestselling book The Twentieth Day of January has received major media attention since it deals with many of the controversies surrounding the 2016 election.
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