DEATH BEAM

Crown, New York, 1981, 1^st/1^st.  ISBN 0-517-544873.  Hard cover, 408 pages.  Very good plus; light edge wear, spine ends lightly bumped; binding sound with headbands and a bit of a lean.  Price-clipped dust jacket shows cover wear with some rubs and light scratches; edge wear primarily at corners and spine ends with some short tears, repaired tears on verso.  Interior clean and unmarked; flat signed by author on half-title page.  ‘When a senior Soviet military intelligence officer defects to the United States, he … reports that hawkish generals in the Kremlin plan to fire a killer beam from a space battle station and inflict a technological Pearl Harbor on the United States.  At first the CIA refuses to believe that the Death Beam weapon is a reality.  To do so they would be forced to admit that they have been duped by their number-one source within the KGB, … and that Martini has been “run” by a KGB mole burrowed deep in the heart of the CIA.  While the Washington intelligence community debates the issue, time is running out.  Only a few weeks before the deadly attack, the Club – a secret fraternity of Western operatives – swings into action to sabotage the launch.’ (from front flap)