Midnight in Saint Petersburg

by Len Deighton

Harry Palmer heads a private investigation business based in Moscow. His associates are Nikolai "Nick" Petrov (Jason Connery), ex-CIA agent Craig (Michael Sarrazin), and ex-KGB Colonel Gradsky (Lev Prygunov). They take on the job of finding 1000 grams of [[weapons-grade]] plutonium stolen from the Russian government, though they do not know the identity of their client.

This leads Harry back to Saint Petersburg, where (in Bullet to Beijing) he managed to make enemies of both of the leading rival gangsters, Alex (Michael Gambon) and Yuri (Anatoli Davydov). Nonetheless, suspecting that Alex is involved, Harry talks Yuri into helping him.

As a complication, Nick's ballerina girlfriend Tatiana (Tanya Jackson) is kidnapped by a gang working for Alex into order to pressure her father, the head curator of the Hermitage Museum, into helping steal valuable artwork for crooked art dealer Dr. Vestry (Serge Houde). Also in the mix is reporter Brandy (Michelle Burke), who turns out also to be working for Alex. Nick is captured when he goes looking for Tatiana, but manages to escape in time to assist Harry, with Yuri's help, foil both schemes.