North from Rome

This fictional book is about an American playwright, William Lammiter, who goes to Rome to mend his broken engagement to Eleanor Halley, only to discover that she has become the fiancee of Count Luigi Pirotta, an aristocrat as handsome as he is disquieting. Almost simultaneously, through a dramatic chance encounter with a fascinating Italian girl, Rosana Di Feo, Lammiter finds himself caught in the strange and hazardous game of international intrigue. And deeply enmeshed in it he find Count Luigi Pirotta.

Helen MacInnes wrote this book 40+ years ago, and it has stood the test of time. Her characters could be transported to the 21st century and not be out of place. (Maybe the heroine is a little more helpless, but there are a lot of females like her today.) Though the setting is the early days of the cold war, it is general enough that that too is still believable. Ms. MacInnes developes strong characters, a rip-roaring, suspensful, action-filled plot; and as a bonus one gets to enjoy a visit to Rome, and the countryside north of it. Anything by Helen MacInnes is a good read!