Helen MacInnes Libros

For Nina, the trip around the world was the holiday of a lifetime. Her new friends were lively students but terrorism was the only degree attractive James Kiley was pursuing.

A thriller by the author of "North from Rome", "Prelude to Terror", "Snare of the Hunter", "Ride a Pale Horse", "Unconquerable" and "Message from Malaga".

"A master of the suspense novel." THE BOSTON GLOBE It began very innocently. A holiday visit to Poland. But before enojoying the sights and sounds of this fascinating new place, happiness took a violent turn and became a nightmare of terror...when suddenly you're mistaken for a Nazi spy, and to save your life, you have to prove you are innocent.

A game of espionage ... Fenner burned Rosenfeld's message, reminding himself wryly that he was behaving in the very best tradition. This was a game not too difficult to learn, he thought. A game? A game in deadly earnest. A vacation in Venice that was grim business. A girl constantly beside him who wasn't his. How the hell had he walked into this upside-down world? Where, he wondered suddenly, would Venice lead?

To the accompaniment of flamenco guitars, a drama of espionage begins in a cafe courtyard in Malaga. For Ian Ferrier, on a vacation visit to his old friend Jeff Reid, it means the startling discovery that Reid is more than just a wine exporter...he is in fact a CIA agent who smuggles Cuban refugees into Spain. When a more important refugee--a high-ranking, defecting KGB agent--arrives, the drama intensifies. Ferrier finds himself alone and responsible for the defector's safety.

The scene is Vienna, where an American art expert, Colin Grant, has been dispatched by a Texas millionaire to buy a painting by the Dutch master Ruysdael. He is instructed to get the painting "at any cost" but to keep his employer's name a secret. This seemingly simple assignment turns into a nightmare for Grant as he finds himself in the center of a conspiracy to unleash bloody international terrorism The art world meets cloak-and-dagger intrigue in this Cold War thriller. A triumph of pacing from a veteran of the genre.