I've always enjoyed Ross Thomas aka Oliver Bleeck. His writing style is easy going with a bit of humor and his plots involve lots of double crossing, double dealing cons. This story is no different even though it's really absurd. The State Department "kidnaps" its own ambassador to Yugoslavia and arranges for St. Ives to be the go between in order to free a famous poet who does want to leave the country. This novel reminded me of Eric Ambler. The action and suspense made for a good read; just remember it was written in 1971 and it was a different world back then.

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