Booby Trap

Predictable plotting and one-dimensional characters destroy the reader's expectations for Stevenson's newest thriller. Col. Zia Gabbiya, a Khadafy-like Middle Eastern potentate, infiltrates and takes command of a former British colony resembling Bermuda. Working through shell corporations, he's also managed to acquire a stranglehold on the world's financial system, which he threatens to destroy. Moreover, the Vietnamese, thirsting for revenge against the U.S., are supporting him, and behind this old enemy lurks anotherthe Soviet Union. There's talk of a Grenada-style raid to neutralize the Colonel, but pusillanimous politicians and hand-wringing bureaucrats in Washington are paralyzed with indecision. Then the CIA decides to ``get Gabbiya'' by activating Pete Casey, a former Navy pilot who was shot down and imprisoned by the North Vietnamese. Casey is reluctant, but he's also obsessed with MIAsAmericans still thought to be held in Vietnamese jailsand there's an MIA angle to the Gabbiya-Vietnam connection. He agrees to the mission, but the narrative remains earth-bound. Stevenson's best, A Man Called Intrepid, continually astonishes the reader. This novel is nowhere near that standard. (April 3)