The Disposable Man - Paperback

When a local quarry yields up a garroted body with bad dental work and toes tattooed in Cyrillic, Joe Gunther figures it for a Russian mafia killing, rare as that might be in Vermont. But it's so very... tidy. So very... professional. Then the CIA calls, inviting Gunther down to Washington for some friendly "assistance" with his case. Suddenly he's caught up a shadowy game of cross and double-cross-manipulated by cynical cold warriors who seem not to have gotten the memo-and Gunther soon realizes that he's a pawn that both sides are willing to sacrifice.

Back Jacket

FROM RUSSIA WITH MURDER

The corpse lies facedown in a deserted quarry, strangled to death with piano wire. The man looks Slavic. There are no identifiers except foreign dental work and cryptic tattoos. Stumped, Gunther wonders what a guy like this is doing in Vermont, and why the CIA is sniffing around. The agency tells him the victim was just an old Russkie they've been tailing for years. But Gunther smells a rat. Why do they keep urging him to drop the case? And why do they consistently keep local cops and the FBI in the dark? Searching for answers, Gunther enters a strange battle zone where the blood of Cold War operatives still runs hot. And finds himself pitted against the very legal system he has always fought to uphold as he fights for life itself.