An excellent followup to the first book in the series, which sees Mathew Dilke continuing his training of a cadre of micro-men (his secretary and love interest, Hyacinthe seems to be the only micro-woman), though this detail seems principally to facilitate the debriefing of readers who may not be familiar with the first volume, as Dilke and Hyacinthe are soon off on their main mission, to save the forestry industry of North America.

Cut to British Columbia in the Canadian Rockies, where some mysterious blight is causing the forests to die off. A new member of the micro-team is the rather dour Scottish botanist, Jon Butt, who obviously hasn't been briefed on the poor survival rate of Dilke's companions! He's less interested in the commercial ruin being caused, the main concern of the high-ranking official who's sanctioned the mission, and more on the ecological impact of the environmental disaster.

It's not giving too much away to say that, as this is still a Cold War spy adventure, those pesky commies are up to their old nefarious tricks again! Gutteridge does, however, manage to keep them from being wholly cardboard villains.

A fun quick read for a summer's afternoon. ( )