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This page lists novels by Helen MacInnes.

The cover images are of the first edition and a recent paperback or digital edition.

Above Suspicion

Helen MacInnes

1941

"Richard and Frances Myles are preparing for their annual European summer vacation in 1939 when they are visited at their Oxford college by old friend Peter Galt, who has a seemingly simple job for them. Galt asks if they would start their holiday in Paris, meet a man there, and then continue their journey as he directs. But in the heightened atmosphere of pre-war Europe, nobody is above suspicion, in fact the husband and wife are being carefully monitored by shadowy figures. Soon the couple are racing across Europe and must use all their ingenuity to stay one step ahead of the enemy."

Assignment in Brittany

Helen MacInnes

1942

"Three hours ago he had stood on English earth. Three hours ago he had been Martin Hearne... Now he was Bertrand Corlay. Martin Hearn had been summoned by Military Intelligence and given an important mission - enter Nazi-occupied France to gather information about German activities in the area. But to do so Hearn must impersonate a Frenchman to whom he bears an uncanny resemblance, and that includes having to fool the women in Corlay's life. When it becomes clear that Corlay was not simply an innocent French civilian, Hearn finds himself playing an increasingly dangerous game to outwit his Nazi enemies."

While Still We Live

Helen MacInnes

1944

Also published as The Uncinquerable.

"English girl Sheila Matthews' innocent holiday to Poland becomes a nightmare when the German Army invade in the summer of 1939. Working for the Polish underground as a double-agent, she is soon suspected by the Germans and is forced to flee to the forest, hunted by a ruthless German officer. Now she must rely on the dashing Captain Adam Wisniewski to help her home."

Horizon

Helen MacInnes

1945

"British soldier Peter Lennox, a POW in an Italian prison camp, is still fighting his own war. An artist in civilian life, his hands bear the scars of wounds received during his capture at the fall of Tobruk, and he suspects he will never paint again. The only thing that sustains him is plotting his escapes, no matter how many times he is recaptured. But in September 1943 the Italians surrender to the Allies, and Lennox is free. Wanting nothing more than to return to the fighting, he is instead assigned to the mountains of the South Tyrol as a liaison to a desperate band of resistance fighters. With little more than courage and knowledge of the local terrain, Lennox and his comrades must help pave the way for an Allied push that may change the course of the war."

Friends and Lovers

Helen MacInnes

1947

"David Bosworth and Penelope Lorrimer seem to have everything against them. He is a penniless undergraduate at Oxford with a head full of dreams; she is the daughter of a well-to-do Edinburgh family who have great ambitions for her. Nevertheless their friendship defies the gulf between their social backgrounds, and the opposition that they encounter draws them closer than any love more easily won. But as the shadow of war creeps over Europe, there will be greater challenges before they can hope to be together."

Rest and Be Thankful

Helen MacInnes

1949

"They were worlds apart. Sarah Bly, a sophisticated career woman on a chauffeur-driven tour of America. Jim Brent, a tough, old-fashioned cowboy, ill at ease away from his rugged mountain ranch. Yet a wrong turn on a remote road in Wyoming unexpectedly brings them together. Can two such different people every really overcome their differences and give in to love?"

Neither Five Nor Three

Helen MacInnes

1951

"Paul Haydn was on his way home at last, to New York and the civilian life he longed for, after years of War. Yet he would never forget the tormented people, desperate for refuge in Berlin. They had survived the War - but now a new, sinister presence threatened them, their families, the whole of society. Now he discovered that, back home, some of his former colleagues had dangerous political sympathies, that someone was trying to discredit the woman he had once loved. The pattern seemed suddenly familiar. He began to realise why there was such interest in his counter-propaganda skills."

I and My True Love

Helen MacInnes

1953

"Diplomat Payton Pleydell and his wife Sylvia are the most respected couple in Washington. Then the arrival of a Czech official threatens to bring their life crashing down. After six years apart, Sylvia has not forgotten Jan Brovic, with whom she was once deeply in love. But former allies have become bitter enemies, and Sylvia must decide whether to risk everything to be with the man she loves."

Pray for a Brave Heart

Helen MacInnes

1955

"It was 1953, and nothing could shake William Denning's resolve to leave the army and return to the States. Nothing, except one of the largest diamond hauls ever - which, in the wrong hands, on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain, was a potentially lethal force. In a small village in the Swiss mountains, Denning discovered that there was not only a jewellery robbery at stake. In the ruthless world of espionage and international conspiracy his adversaries were the most unlikely people - and the most dangerous."

North from Rome

Helen MacInnes

1958

"Bill Lammiter, an American would-be playwright, followed Eleanor Halley to Rome in an attempt to mend their broken engagement. After learning that she is now engaged to an aristocratic Italian count, he is ready to admit defeat and return home. But his plans are put on hold when he saves the mysterious Rosana Di Feo from a kidnap attempt. Di Feo pleads for Lammiter to stay and help her, revealing that Halley too may be at risk - her new fiancé is mixed up in a narcotics ring with sinister Communist connections. Soon Lammiter is drawn into a hazardous game of international intrigue, where allies can be as difficult to identify as enemies, and danger and death are never far away."

Decision at Delphi

Helen MacInnes

1960

"Trust, thought Strang, is more than a delicate business when involved politics are at stake. When Kenneth Strang, a young New York architect, is dispatched to the Mediterranean to sketch ancient ruins for a national travel magazine, he believes the trip is just another routine assignment. However, during his journey from Athens to Sparta - and at last to Dephi - he becomes involved with a dangerous conspiracy that threatens both Strang and his photographer companion, Cecilia Hillard. For Strang, danger is no object, but when he fell in love with the beautiful Cecilia, he gave his enemies the one weapon they needed."

The Venetian Affair

Helen MacInnes

1963

"A vacation in Venice that was grim business. A girl constantly beside him who wasn't his. How the hell had he walked into this upside-down world? New York drama critic Bill Fenner arrives in Paris, only to discover that his coat has accidentally been switched with another - and that he is now $100,000 richer. But when the US Embassy refers him to NATO and the CIA, what began as a seemingly simple case of mistaken identity becomes something far more lethal. Following the trail to Venice, Fenner must learn to play a deadly game with the highest stakes, against communist opponents plotting an assassination that threatens to undermine the balance of Europe. Accompanied by a woman he cannot have, he."

Home Is the Hunter

Helen MacInnes

1964

"After years of war, Ulysses finally returns to Ithaca. Rather than the joyous welcome he had hoped for, he finds his palace full of suitors, all scheming to possess his wife, and Penelope is wondering why it has taken him seven years to get home. Meanwhile Homer becomes increasingly irritated that they are not adhering to the plot of his new book, and the goddess Athena has had enough of irrational mortal behaviour."

The Double Image

Helen MacInnes

1966

"While carrying out research in Paris, American historian John Craig is surprised when he runs into his old college professor. Sussman is a worried man. A survivor of Auschwitz, he is in shock, having seen and been seen by one of the Nazis who tortured him in the camp. But SS Colonel Berg has been dead for ten years - or has he? Before Craig can help solve the riddle, Sussman is found dead and Craig is being questioned by the police. As various international organisations are drawn into the hunt for Sussman's killer, he realises that the ex-Nazi is far more than just a wanted war criminal. Soon Craig's search for the truth takes him from Paris to the island of Mykonos, where he must unmask a dangerous and powerful foe."

The Salzburg Connection

Helen MacInnes

1968

"Twenty-one years ago, with the Allies on their heels, the Nazis hid a sealed chest in the dark, forbidding waters of the Finstersee, a lake surrounded by the brooding peaks of the Austrian Alps. One of the few men who knows of its existence is Richard Bryant, a British agent. He sets out alone to discover the secret of the lake and unleashes a series of violent reactions - and violent deaths."

Message from Málaga

Helen MacInnes

1971

"Under the Mediterranean sun, a drama begins in a cafe courtyard in M álaga. For Ian Ferrier, an employee of the United States Space Agency on a vacation visit to his old friend Jeff Reid, it means the startling discovery that Reid is not just a wine exporter, but also a CIA operative, charged with smuggling communist defectors to the West. Events take a disastrous turn for the worse when Ferrier, a stranger both to Spain and to the deadly world of espionage, is forced to take sole charge of a high-ranking KGB agent. Alone in an beguiling but alien country, he can afford no mistakes when choosing between friend and foe."

The Snare of the Hunter

Helen MacInnes

1974

"Irina Kusak's recently divorced husband, Jiri Hradek, is a high-ranking official in the Czechoslovakian secret police: cruel, ambitious, utterly ruthless. So when he turns a blind eye to her defection to the west, she is uneasy. Aided in her escape by a group of friends, including David Mennery, an American with whom she once had a passionate affair, Irina begins to feel herself truly free. But soon their journey becomes a nightmare. It becomes clear that Hradek only allowed Irina to defect in order to bait a trap for her father, a world-famous author living in secrecy in the west, but when she refuses to lead Hradek to his quarry, Irina herself becomes his prime target. As Hradek closes in and Irina's life hangs in the balance, David Mennery is drawn into a desperate fight to protect her and finds himself once more falling deeply in love."

Agent in Place

Helen MacInnes

1976

"Chuck Kelso is an idealist. When he steals a top-secret NATO memorandum, he only intends to leak it to the press; but it is soon in the hands of a Russian agent, a man who has spent nine years quietly working himself into the fabric of Washington society. Within hours it has reached the KGB, and the CIA's top man in Moscow has had his cover blown. For British agent Tony Lawton, hunting down the Russian operative - the 'agent in place' - is a welcome challenge. But for Chuck's brother, the journalist Tom Kelso, and his beautiful wife, Thea, the affair has unleashed a very special terror. Now the race is on to find the Russian spy before a top-level NATO conference. But why is the escaped agent behaving so strangely? Is he who he seems?"

Prelude to Terror

Helen MacInnes

1978

A Robert Renwick novel.

"New York art expert Colin Grant takes on an easy commission: to travel to Vienna and bid on a priceless Old Master on behalf of a Texan millionaire. The painting has been smuggled out of Hungary by a defector, and Grant must get it at any cost, while keeping his employer's name a secret. But all is not as it seems. No sooner has Grant landed in Austria than his seemingly simple assignment turns into a nightmare, as he finds himself at the centre of a conspiracy to unleash a wave of international terrorism. Grant must now navigate a hidden and terrifying world, as he and the woman he loves become pawns in a war between the secret armies of East and West."

The Hidden Target

Helen MacInnes

1980

A Robert Renwick novel.

"For Nina O'Connell, a trip round the world was the holiday of a lifetime. Travelling in a group, she is surprised when she runs into an old flame. But Bob Renwick is not there by chance. He is on the hunt for two terrorists who have left a trail of murder in their wake, and soon Nina is caught up in a grim game of life or death,from Bombay to Washington's political elite."

Cloak of Darkness

Helen MacInnes

1982

A Robert Renwick novel.

"Bob Renwick, founder of counter-terrorist agency Interintell, is handed a list of names, compiled by the ruthless executive of an international munitions firm, intent on removing anyone in his way. To be on the list means death, and Renwicks name is third. On a desperate mission from New York to Djibouti, Renwick must unmask his nemesis to save all he holds dear."

Ride a Pale Horse

Helen MacInnes

1984

"When Karen Cornell, a beautiful journalist on assignment in Czechoslovakia, agrees to help a would-be defector by carrying top-secret documents to Washington, she is pulled into an astonishing web of terrorism, political assassination, blackmail, espionage, and treason in the highest levels of both superpowers. One false move could cost Karen her life and throw the world into a violent war."