Irina Kusak is the daughter of a Czech Nobel-laureate father and Communist mother. She is recently divorced from the ruthless and ambitious head of the Czech secret police Jiri Hrádek. After her mother's death in the 1970's, she makes it known to appropriate contacts that she wants to escape fr...
It’s 1952 and American Bill Denning is ready to say goodbye to life in the army’s Restitution of Property division with his eyes set on returning home to the States. But when a friend and fellow army man comes to him with a quiet and emphatic request for one last case, Denning finds himself amid ...
This was a discard from the library on a 'giveaway' shelf. I took and read it because of MacInnes's positive reputation as a spy novelist. Written during WWII, it is a classic in the espionage genre. It is perhaps dated now, but still fairly enjoyable. It was a good, solid story, and MacInne...
Liked it because I like most McInnes novels, but not as much because it deals with adultery. Sure, there's not a real marriage, and it's only ever hinted that either Payton likes men in the main or in the particular...or perhaps he's just married to his job of intrigue. Certainly his wife is put ...
Another well written book about how well the enemies of freedom skillfully work at undermining the peoples' trust in the American government and principles which we have historically held to among our own people and the world. They do not care for truth, they do not care for freedom, and they h...
Not my favorite, but still a good decent read. I like the tension between the married man who wants to divulge secrets to his observant wife (but can't), and the need to protect by not saying much at all. Glad that McInnes often writes (convincingly) about happily married couples. For some reason...
I picked this up at a library sale recently. Having read it during a pregnancy many years ago, I wondered if it held up. Sort of, it is a diversion, a spy novel of the old sort, with charming characters, about the drug trade in the 1950's. MacInnes is a lady writer of the old school, whose idea o...
Sheila is visiting friends in Poland. The year is 1939 and war is about to break out. While she has the means to leave the country, she stays behind hoping to help her friends get through the Siege of Warsaw, but is mistaken for a spy by the Germans and they insist on her help. She never knew her...
Helen MacInnes is a classic example of the old-school spy thriller. She's written some excellent books, and Message from Malaga is another good story from her canon. MacInnes writes with a great deal of authority in terms of culture and society, probably due to the excellent education she had (de...
The book dates from 1960 and deals with the fall-out of WWII and the subsequent civil war in Greece. Kenneth Sprang is illustrating an article about Greek temples, and is looking forward to visiting Athens again for the first time since he spent a terrible winter there chasing the Nazis as a US s...
The author’s final work, the only one with a heroine, happens to be my favorite. A respected journalist is invited to a Soviet propaganda conference. Not her cup of tea, but she learns that she may have access to a very special interview. However, she, instead, is approached by a high-level KGB...
Re-read because it was mentioned in someone's review of Above Suspicion which I just re-read and I couldn't remember what this one was about.A British soldier who has been a POW is assigned as a liaison to resistance fighters in the South Tyrol at the end of WWII. He gets bored because not much h...
In 1939, when Oxford professor Richard Myles and his wife Frances receive a visit from their good friend Peter Galt, they find themselves faced with a surprising request. They are planning their annual trip abroad and Peter asks them to first visit Paris where they’ll meet a man – an agent. Their...
