Sleeping Dogs

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If you don't catch on to the essential shell-game trick early on (the chances are about 50-50), Ross' quiet but dashing ways will provide one of the year's more entertaining pure-escapist spy concoctions. The "sleeping dogs" are sleeper Soviet agents, seemingly ordinary family men who have lived in a sleepy New England hamlet for 20 years, carefully observed by their neighbor, CIA man Sam Hanlon. For two decades, there’s been nothing to report. However, signs indicate that these sleepers might soon become active, prompting the Company to send its most lethal assassin, complete with a killer Doberman, to eliminate them through a series of bizarre accidents. Convinced of a fundamental mistake, Sam disobeys orders, turns renegade, and aids the sole surviving sleeper in escaping. The CIA has indeed made a critical error, as there are still sleepers at large, and an assassination countdown is underway. This climax hinges on a brainwashed adolescent-assassin, which may seem implausible, but it is spun with surprising humanity and narrative ease by the same author who made a PLO scenario palatable in 1977.