The Snare of the Hunter

Many Helen MacInnes books follow very similar plotlines. Somehow an amateur protagonist gets accidentally involved in a Cold War spy intrigue, and ends up working with Western intelligence agents to help defeat the Soviet-bloc (or occasionally Nazi or ex-Nazi) plot. This book is nothing like that. The hero is not accidentally involved and Western intelligence agencies do not figure into the story at all. Instead, he is part of a conspiracy of amateurs to help smuggle a Czech woman out of her country and into the west, where she can meet up with her famous expatriot father (a novelist). The hero agrees to help because he will be in the right place at the right time -- and because two decades before he had met this woman and fallen in love with her. However, as the plot progresses it appears that someone in this scheme is working for the other side. And her escape is not so straightforward as it first seems. In fact, she is being used as bait to smoke her father out from hiding. As this crew of amateurs tries to smuggle her across Austria, through Italy, and into Switzerland, they must figure out how to win an endgame that seems to have already been decided against them. In the process they must battle professional spies without the help of friendly intelligence agents -- help that most of MacInnes's heroes usually can count on. It's a good book and well worth reading, though not one of MacInnes's very best.

I loved this book. I love all of her books, but this one especially. You care about the characters, you care about getting Irina to safety. I still have the original copy of this book that I bought when it came out in 1974. I reread it often. I find my self wanting to visit the places that the characters are at in the book.