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Martin Odum has learned to live with it. Sometimes he's Martin Odum, former CIA operative, currently a private detective in Brooklyn. But sometimes he's Dante Pippen, an Irishman trained in explosives by the IRA, and sometimes he's Lincoln Dittman, a Civil War expert so obsessed with his subject that he believes he was actually present at the Battle of Fredericksburg. All these personalities are legends, or cover stories, the CIA devised for him while on assignment in some of the world's most dangerous places. All these legends involve different backgrounds, talents, and character traits, and Martin has embodied these legends so successfully that he has developed an unusual kind of multiple personality disorder and can no longer tell which is his own original personality.
Currently he's working as a detective in Brooklyn, taking on cases that seem mundane compared to his former profession. Lost dogs and mahjongg debts, as he describes them. All that changes when he is hired to locate the husband of an Orthodox Jewish woman. The missing man has abandoned his wife, and her religion dictates that he must be located in order for a divorce to be granted. The woman's sister and father, who has a history with the KGB, hire Martin to find the vanished husband; his marital woes may be the least of his problems. The chase is on and the hunt leads Martin all over the world, from Israel to the Amish country, uncoincidentally bringing in some dangerous characters from Martin's former career.
In addition to his personality disorder, Martin suffers from amnesia and cannot remember the traumatic event that caused his own personality to diffract so severely. His therapist is sure that there was one such event until she mysteriously was warned off the case and ordered to forget her findings. Martin finds himself in pursuit of one of the world's most powerful, most dangerous criminals, all the while drawing nearer to the truth about the terrible incident that destroyed him.
Touching on the collapse of the Soviet Union, world economy, Chechen rebels, Israel, Lebanon, the state of modern intelligence-gathering, and the perils of beekeeping, LEGENDS provides enough action for the most devoted espionage fan. It also reflects seriously on the fragility of identity and the dangers of its loss.
--- Reviewed by Colleen Quinn (CQuinn9368@yahoo.com)
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