The Best Man

This Book has delighted me since I was a child. Unlike one of the other reviewers I found the several chases kept me on the edge of my seat. In fact I have hoped for years that someone would make a movie of it. A couple of improbabilities? - Of course but then so are half of the martial arts movies, James Bond and many of the other fantasies that we eagerly lap up. A wholesome, exciting tale where the hero struggles to fulfil his task and yet maintain his integrity. I highly recommend this book.

This is definitely not the usual GLH plot. Cyril Gordon works for the Secret Service, and has been assigned to step into another man's place as a codebreaker to retrieve an intercepted letter at a fancy dinner. Cyril successfully obtains the letter -- and a chase scene ensues when he is discovered. He manages to escape straight into a wedding, where he is mistaken for what he believes it the best man. Deciding that he may as well play along with this and hopefully elude capture, he finds himself instead mistaken for . . . Well, I'm not going to spoil the plot or the chase scenes that follow after the wedding ceremony. Will Celia, the young and beautiful bride, trust him as he slowly unravels his story? Will they escape from the villains who hunt them to kill them, and what of the message that he obtained and must deliver to his chief, all the while protecting the young woman who is beginning to trust him? I found the plot rather implausible, and sometimes the chases were tedious because there were so many of them, but GLH does deliver a good story with lovable characters and the inevitable happy ending for the good, and the proper punishments for the bad. If only all of life worked out so neatly.

Cyril Gordon hides himself in another man's place during a wedding. Can he "pull it off"? And what will happen if he succeeds? How will be step away once he is safe? That is, if Cyril can step away from the beautiful, tragic bride whom he wants to protect from the groom. This plot is more fun than a joy-ride through the country in Grandpa's Cadillac: Nothing predictable and very satisfying when it's finished.