I have been reading a lot more of my older books that I am collecting so I have decided to start posting a review of them on here. So here is my new feature Retro Reads.
Above Suspicion by Helen MacInnis is the authors first book and it was written in 1941. She wrote espionage novels and you can tell the time period they are written in because this one deals with Nazi's. She wrote eighteen standalone novels and one trilogy. I currently own fourteen of her standalone books in my physical collection and one from her trilogy.
It is the summer of 1939. A young Oxford don, Richard Myles and his wife Frances are about to leave for their usual long vacation on the continent. At the request of a Foreign Office friend of Richard's they agree to serve as messengers to a man who has been involved in rescue work and anti-Nazi espionage, a man who now seems to have gone missing. Their qualifications? Next to nothing except for Richard's superb memory and the fact that they look so very innocent. Across a continent on the brink of war from Paris to Innsbruck and beyond Richard and Francis travel ever deeper into danger.This is the cover art of the copy that I have from 1969
What I thought
Richard and his wife are confronted by a friend who seems to do some things that he can't really talk much about, but he was safe but there was something going on and he needed their help. Everyone knows that Richard and Frances take long holidays and so he needs them to just sort of do what they normally do but go to Paris and meet someone. He think because they are husband and wife they will be above suspicion if they just act natural.
Richard has a great memory and it's what is needed because he will have to memorize anything given to him and then destroy it. They need them to follow the instructions that should take then to a different city and a different person until they track down the man on the end or find out what has happened to him as they haven't heard form that man in a while.
Richard is all for doing this but he doesn't want his wife coming but she wasn't going to have him going alone and it wouldn't work unless they were a couple. While they are traveling they run into an American Henry Van Cortlandt and an Oxford friend Robert Thorney who will eventually help aid them in getting the heck out of there once things go a bit south.
So I haven't really read many spy thrillers and I wasn't sure what I would think of this one. It was funny because before reading this book I picked up a bunch of her books because I loved the covers of them and they were retro but I had no clue if I would enjoy them or not. They were each 50 cents so I wasn't out much if I didn't like them but I am glad I picked them up because if the others arer as good as her first one I think I will enjoy them all.
This is so not my kind of book because it wasn't action packed from begining to end, actually we are mostly following the two MC's from city to city as they try and figure things out. The atmostphere is pretty high but that usually doesn't do anything for me if there is no action. It's set at a time when WWII is about to break out so tentions are high, lots of German military marching around looking at everyone suspiciously and the MC's are being followed which lead to some fun and interesting things as the couple would dup them in some funny ways.
The action didn't really actually happen till about 50 pages from the end of the book so I was surprised at how much I was invested in what was happening with no action. I think that can attest to the authors writing ability and her knowledge of what was happeningat this time because she was living through a lot of it and she also said she did a lot of research.
I highly recommend if you are a fan of spy novels.
5 stars
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