Charlie Sparrow's superiors are concerned that one of the world's richest men has something other than business-as-usual in mind as he secrets himself and his top advisors. The indications are that he is creating a version of the flu that he can use to save the world by eliminating most of the humans who mess it up.
Tom Ardies was a parliamentary correspondent and columnist for the Vancouver Sun during the 60's. In the 70's he wrote several suspence thrillers, the first three being the Charles Sparrow series. A later book, Kosygin Is Coming, was turned into a movie called Russian Roulette starring George Segal and Denholm Elliott.
Another forgotten and under rated writer. Ardies wrote thrillers and pot boilers in the seventies and eighties and nineties. Characterized by way above average writing, plotting and sexy outrageousness these books need to be rediscovered. Thanks to Brash Books and Cutting Edge for bringing Ardies back in print.
Well, damn. I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books in the series but stopped trying to read this one after 50 pages. Even allowing for when this was written, Charlie, the main character behaved like a sex-starved frat boy & I hated men like that even back in the early 70s! There are lots of great books waiting to be read so I'm moving on.