This is book 3 of the "Will Lee" series.

This note contains spoilers for the book.

An early Will Lee / Katherine Rule book, before they were married.

I'm starting to think that, mostly, his earlier books are much better than the current production. This one is a complexly plotted espionage thriller which barely averts a Russian invasion of Sweden, including use of nuclear weapons (pushed by one overly-aggressive KGB member, of course). The characters may be a bit too plot-focused, but it's also reasonable that the kind of people who will both have successful careers ending with the Presidency might be a little focused on their work.

This is also the first bit of the Ed Rawls story, where Kate catches him working with the Russians and has him arrested. He was active from prison in another book I read recently, Kate even went to visit him (or maybe I should say he called her to him).

Will ends up meeting the Russian who saves the day (by refusing to follow orders to set off the bomb, having figured out what it is) while Helder is escaping from Sweden after losing the mini-sub planting the bomb (which he has been told is a navigation buoy).

And, like many books of this period, Will is involved in sailing, single-handing fairly large yachts around the Atlantic and Baltic.

This is also where Kate establishes her position in the CIA really solidly. It's amazing what a woman has to accomplish to get taken seriously in the intelligence community!