3RD $WRY of lLevel:J0
 Approved For e ease 6616hN01:"C)W-`kbc069'-00791 ROOQ20023001
 Copyright 19L87---The Washington Post
 Tire hi~gton Post
 April 26, day, Final Edition
 SECTION: BOOK WORLD; PAGE Xll
 LENGTH: 814 words
 HEADLINE: Spying in the Twilight Zone
 BYLINE: Rory Quirk
  BODY:
 ... pp. $ 16.95
 PAGE
 YOU'VE GOT To hand it to anyone who can create a readable novel out of
 U.S.-Soviet research into the paranormal, which is what David Wise has done in
 The Samarkand Dimension, an arresting and engaging spy thriller in which blind
 ... for the launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base, the CIA literally gets
 some very bad vibes, namely that the Soviets have sabotaged the project through
 telekinesis -- the ability to move objects through mental concentration. The
 agency taps one of its most tried and trusted agents, Markham, to penetrate the
 Soviet parapsychology facility at Samarkand, deep in Soviet central Asia. His
 orders are simple: Report back on the state of Soviet research into the
 paranormal. And, in the event that his cover is blown and he elects not to kill
 himself, he has the agency's blessing to cooperate with his captors rather than
 ... It's a surreal journey into a world of experiments where documents in
 remote locations are accessed by psychics through "remote viewing," thoughts are
 "implanted" in unrealizing humans, and laboratory animals are zombieized with
 doses of "psychic energy." "You've turned a rabbit into ...
 ... Markham. "True," sniffs a research honcho, "but it's a far cry from being
 able to zap a Soviet leader in the Kremlin from a distance of 4,800 miles. In
 terms of practical application, we have a long way to go." ...
 ... Kansas, on the Denver-Chicago run.
 AFTER this lengthy lull, Wise gets things rolling as Markham/Weaver is
 "dangled to the Soviets as a vulnerable, alcoholic, in-debt American scientist
 with access to secret research into the military and intelligence applications
 of parapsychology." The KGB bites, and Markham is whisked off to Samarkand to
 try to finesse his double agent high wire act for some very skeptical Soviet
 interrogators. When his seemingly airtight cover is unexpectedly shredded, the
 Soviets start demanding hard answers, and the whole operation unravels with
 riveting grimness.
 Markham's interrogation and torture are convincingly nightmarish -- "Ludmilla
 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00791 R00020023001 0-1