When Bob Rivers came back from covering the Mideast war for Tim Hoffman, Rivers' body was wracked and his spirit crushed. All he wanted was a vacation on Nantucket-perhaps a permanent one. The last thing he expected was a big new story or to fall in love with Meri... quiet, passionate Meri who still mourned the death of her fiancé, another corre-spondent. But when Meri becomes the target of vicious brutal. ity, Rivers finds himself embroiled in an investigation that leads from the fiance killed abroad--to the most deadly threat ever faced by the United States. Tim Hoffman is the leading candidate for the Presi-dency. He's a publishing magnate, and Rivers' longtime friend. But is the real Tim Hoffman actually dead? Is Tim's look-alike cousin, Karl von Hoffman, German deserter and Communist agent, about to make the greatest spy coup in history? Only Rivers and Meri can unlock the secret of the Chekhov Proposal. As men die, and the frail security of the nation trembles,