Endless movies and books have been written about foreign spies secretly infiltrating
America, "sleepers" awaiting orders to become active, undercover operatives that
have infiltrated government and finance. THE CHARM SCHOOL is the ultimate in espionage
novels, based on very disquieting rumors that have circulated for years --- that American
POWs were being used by the Soviet KGB to train agents to pass as authentic Americans.
Mrs. Ivanova's Charm School is the most closely held secret in the Cold War game. An
entire compound within the Soviet Union has been designed for programming top KGB agents
into model US citizens. Everything from history to sports to the colorful idioms of
particular regions --- nothing is left to chance. Except that one prisoner has escaped,
and his fortuitous meeting with an American tourist on a lonely road in the Russian
countryside sets the events in motion for this explosive novel by Nelson DeMille.
DeMille, himself, acknowledges in his 1997 interview that he believes this school actually
existed. This may explain the tremendous interest in and popularity of THE CHARM SCHOOL.
But then it is a DeMille novel --- and no one writes suspenseful thrillers any better!
--- Reviewed by Ann L. Bruns
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