Here is a truly original thriller, comparable to the very best of vintage Le Carré. It is set behind the Berlin Wall in the heart of the East German police state and it features one of the most unique and winning heroines since Lucy in Ken Follett's Eye of the Needle. Her name is Käte Frassek, a resistance fighter since the age of eighteen, who over the course of twenty years leads a double life in her courageous campaign to rouse her countrymen to revolt against their repressive regime. She is a wife, a mother, a scientist, a lover... and an assassin. Against a backdrop of the Cold War in the 1960s, an abiding love develops between Käte, while still the young wife of an East German official, and an American physician innocent of who she is and what she is doing. In the remarkable climax to her years of plotting against the head of the State's secret police, she finally must risk not only her own life but her son's and lover's as well. (From the original hardback edition) DEATH MATE To kill the man who had killed so many, Kate would do anything. She would use her brain to work herself to the top of her profession. She would yield her body to go even higher up the ladder of power. She would risk her own child as a pawn on a chessboard of cunning move and counter thrust. But now she was being asked to make a sacrifice she dreaded. Not her own life that would have been easy. But the life of the good and noble man she passionately loved - so that the beast she hated might die.... (From the original Signet paperback) REVIEWS "SOLID TENSION, SUDDEN DANGER, FIERCE ACTION ... CATCHES FIRE." - Kirkus Reviews "A moving love story as well as a novel filled with action and suspense ... strong and sympathetic characters ... LeCarré, Follett, Ludlum and others in this select group are going to have to step aside ... Thomas Kirkwood is a writer to get excited about." - Rocky Mountain News "NAIL-BITING ... PERFECT!" - Norfolk Virginian Pilot "Powerful ... Truly riveting!" - Chattanooga News-Free Press "A BUBBLING THRILLER ... THE TENSION BUILDS." - Cleveland Plain Dealer "Suspense and intrigue ... A classic adventure." - Mobile Press Register SELECTED BY BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB