Nathan Radcliff is a professor.
His specialty is History and when we encounter him in the first recorded adventure, he is on an extended sabbatical to research material for a book. He has been away from the university where he teaches for a bit of time, judging by his department head's chiding him for not getting back to his position for too long. If Radcliff had succumbed to his mentor's admonishments, he would not have pursued the intriguing bits of hidden information he had just discovered and his life would have been considerably less in danger.
Radcliff is 40 years old when we meet him, a tall man in good shape with impressive reflexes which will help save his life on more than one occasion. He is not a spy and would never dream of being one - he is an academician and very pleased with that profession and intends to keep doing it. Unfortunately, he also will show a tendency to walk unaware into some very harrowing situations which will put him in the midst of people who are in fact government agents. Hence his qualification for membership here.
The adventures with Radcliff would have been entertaining and well worth reading if it were just he we are allowed to follow. When you include, as the author so kindly did, the fascinating and deadly and beautiful (and undoubtedly many other adjectives) Zizi Petrakis (she is somewhat protective about giving out that last name). This highly professional and capable Greek Secret Service operative is there when Radcliff first finds himself in grave danger and she is a good reason he survived that encounter, and several to come late.
Good Lines:
- In response to the question of whether she was Greek, Zizi replies, "Can't you tell? Look, olive skin, big brown eyes, big nose, black hair, awful accent. How could I be anything else?"