Ride a Pale Horse

This is MacInnes's last novel, and in many ways it represents a departure from her normal path. For one thing, the amateur hero who is the central figure is actually a heroine -- rare for MacInnes. Another change is that a significant portion of the novel actually takes place inside the CIA's Langley HQ, instead of being entirely focused on a field operation. A respected journalist is invited to a Soviet propaganda conference. She would normally skip something like that, but she gets word that there may be a very special interview available if she attends. But instead of the interview she expects, she is approached by a high-level KGB officer, who wants her help in defecting to the US. From there the action shifts to Rome, and another dangerous assignment, where it appears she is targeted for assasination. Is it the Russians trying to stop her from helping the defector? Or is something else going on? When a plot is revealed inside the CIA itself, Peter Briscoe has to find the defector, discover the mole in his unit, and protect the reporter who provided him the information -- a reporter he is rapidly falling in love with. The plot twists and twists again, as MacInnes ends her long writing career with a top tier example of her work.

This book is the first that I've ever read by Helen MacInnes, and I was very impressed! I got so into the book that I missed a date and stayed up reading until the wee hours of the morning to finish the book. There is a lot of action, from Eastern Europe to the United States and Italy.