Crooked Cross Factor
By Derek Hart 

     Derek Smith has been assigned to Iceland as security chief for the American Embassy. It seems a rather unassuming task for a talented and experienced Security Service Special Agent, but he is being made to take the rap for a recent fiasco in Saigon. Once he arrives, however, it appears that although he is no longer a part of the Vietnam Wa. There is plenty going on in Iceland: the Cold War, the Cod War, defecting Russians and Nazi gold.

     Derek Hart’s earlier novel, Tales of the Yellow Silk, (also reviewed on this site) introduced this writer with his enviably easy style and slim novels bursting with adventure. This is the sort of old-fashioned espionage fiction that is all too rare today, combining action with romance and solid historical knowledge.

     Another admirable feature of this book is the setting. There are not many books set in Iceland and this one tells the reader plenty about the place in a deceptively clever way. Told in the third person, it would read like a tourist brochure except Derek Smith himself is narrating the tale, so it reads as if he is talking to a friend about his hair-raising experiences in a beautiful country. As with the previous novel (with which there is no connection) Hart paces his work well and the result is an admirably short novel (under 300 pages). I look forward to reading more of his work soon.