Books: Leisure reading

'Loose Lips'

By Claire Berlinski

Random House, $21.95.

Claire Berlinski has written a book with an authentic feel about a love affair between officers in the Central Intelligence Agency.

Selena Keller sends her resume to the CIA on a whim — and after all the background checks, including an intensive interview, she is accepted for training at "the farm," a remote place where she learns hand-to-hand combat, emergency medicine and a host of other aspects of the strange life one finds in the CIA.

During her training, Selena falls for a fellow trainee named Stan, a brilliant fellow who has presidential ambitions.

The book is both satire and intrigue — and the romantic aspect turns out to be a mistake. Stan, by the way, turns slimy after awhile. But the main character is attractive, and the writing is tight and witty. — Dennis Lythgoe

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'The Sixth Lamentation'

By William Broderick

Viking, $24.95.

This is a literary thriller about Agnes Aubret, a reclusive woman who discovers she is dying. The same day, while watching TV, she sees "the face of the man who took away" her life during World War II. That man is Eduard Schwermann, a suspected war criminal, who has found sanctuary at Larkwood Priory, not far from Agnes' home.

Agnes had helped smuggle Jewish children out of occupied France as a member of the French Resistance. All in the resistance were betrayed by a French collaborator working with Schwermann and sent to Auschwitz. Now, at Larkwood Priory, Father Anselm discovers this is not the first time the church has granted sanctuary to Schwermann.

Lucy, Agnes' granddaughter, tries to understand Agnes' past at the same time Father Anselm digs into the church's long, active protection of Schwermann. Finally, the two investigations dovetail to form a story of love and betrayal and the way war continues to haunt people for years afterward.

Interestingly enough, the author, a debut novelist, is a former Augustinian friar who left the order to became a barrister. Now he has written a novel loosely based on the wartime experiences of his mother. — Dennis Lythgoe

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'All Abraham's Children'