Anthony Olcott, writing under the joint pseudonym Toni Brill with his wife, is an author, editor, and translator whose work spans a wide array of subjects. His literary output, including novels that garnered prize nominations and a prizewinning study of Russian crime fiction, delves into the intricate relationship between messages, data, and information. Olcott's research critically examines the challenges presented by the media explosion for anyone seeking to transform raw data into actionable intelligence. His keen focus on the transformation of data into informed understanding is a hallmark of his distinctive literary and analytical approach.
His first mistake was to discover the corpse. His second was to tell the KGB. — Duvakin is a security officer with two desperate problems. One is the naked dead American in room 852. The second is Colonel Polkovnikov of the KGB. When the KGB asked Duvakin's help, that should have been his warning. Dead Russians are one thing. Dead Americans quite another. Then, tempted by fortune and lured by power, Duvakin risks betraying his friends, his beloved Tanya, himself, and his country.
An old cleaning woman caught at Magadan airport with sacks containing priceless furs...A tragic airline "accident" that kills a woman with a devastating secret...A sudden flurrying shift in the Soviet hierarchy...Such are the sinister threads which intertwine to thrust Ivan Duvakin into the menacing glace of KGB suspicions. — Now Duvakin is running for his life, plunged into the vortex of a deadly conspiracy that reaches from the top levels of Party command. His only ally is Galya, a woman doctor whose sensual charms mask a ferocious heart --and who may or may not be his ultimate betrayer.