Deadly Illusions by John Costello and Oleg Tsarev Century $322 THIS is a spy book with a serious alibi problem. Earlier reviewers seem to have been offered Orlov's Story, The KGB Orlov Dossier or both.
The front cover is occupied by ''Top Secret'' in two languages and the words ''The KGB secrets the British Government doesn't want you to read'', which is not a title. No evidence is offered elsewhere on the British Government's preferences. Either this is a reference to a cause celebre which has not been celebrated in Hong Kong or it is hype.
Only when you reach the title page does it become clear that the title is just Deadly Illusions. This would all be a harmless burst of catchpenny puffery if it was not symptomatic of a problem with the book as a whole: it is full of unresolved contradictions.
Mr Tsarev is a KGB man. Presumably he joined the organisation in a burst of patriotic enthusiasm, expecting to spend a career of decent obscurity kicking on nocturnal front doors and thumping dissidents.
However times have changed. He is now a specimen of that rare organism, a KGB press officer.
When the KGB decided to open the files on a past superstar - now safely dead - Mr Tsarev was the natural person to transmit the contents of the newly-opened gold mine to Western journalists working in Spycatcher country, of whom Mr Costello is one.