Overhead - Hardcover

Bickham, Jack M.

3.5

10 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 031285143X ISBN 13: 9780312851439

Publisher: Tor Books, 1991

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A tennis pro and a CIA agent, Brad Smith probes the mysteries behind a troubled tennis resort while acting as bait to draw a slimy KGB assassin away from a nearby Air Force lab

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From Kirkus Reviews:

Tennis pro, Vietnam vet, and intelligence operative Brad Smith, who first served in Dropshot (1990), quits an irritating job in Texas to head for Montana, where his unusual skills are needed to open a new tennis resort and locate a murderous nearby secret agent. Well, whom else would you call to clean out the spies plaguing a mysterious Air Force lab just a backhand away from a troubled tennis camp? The debt-ridden sports resort, just bought by Smith's old tennis and spying pal Ted Treacher, provides the perfect cover for Smith--the only tennis-playing spy in America capable of recognizing his old archenemy Sylvester, the Soviet spy responsible for the death of Smith's late Yugoslavian tennis- playing wife. Sylvester, operating with a completely new face fresh from the plastic surgeon, is in Big Sky country to snatch a bit of strategic-defense technology from the research lab whose powerful secret electromagnetic pulses have been giving the local children leukemia. Also neighboring the resort is a secret toxic- waste dump owned by a beautiful but ruthless capitalist hussy who wants to close down the country club so she can get her toxic wastes back. Smith has to sort out all these secrets while cleaning up the financial and managerial mess his chum has made of what should be a fabulous destination for rich tennis players. Sylvester shoots at him, a sadistic deputy shoots at him, and Ivan Lendl shoots at him. Bodies pop out of the golf course. Credibility crushed in straight sets 6-2, 6-0, 6-1. -- Copyright �1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

Bickham ( Day Seven ) expertly combines tennis, friendship, espionage and corporate malfeasance in this complexly plotted, thoroughly readable thriller. Brad Smith, ex-tennis pro and sometime CIA agent, leaves Dallas for Elk City, Mont., ostensibly to help old friend Ted Treacher open a tennis resort. In fact, Smith is expected to smoke out the deadly KGB agent known as Sylvester, with whom he has had two previous--and near fatal--encounters. Sylvester, suspected of having allies in the Air Force lab near the resort, may be on the verge of obtaining classified information. Arriving in Montana, Smith learns that the KGB agent is only one of his problems. Treacher is in deep financial trouble; the apparently half-crazed town policeman targets Smith as an enemy; and everyone seems to have ties to an old mine doubling as a holding site for toxic waste. Likable heroes, despicable villains and excellent suspense lead to a rousing, satisfying climax.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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