Publication
Titan Books (2013), 352 p.
Original publication date
1941
Collections
Genres
Description
Fiction. Suspense. Thriller. HTML: 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. 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. Above Suspicion was MacInnes' breakthrough book, a bestseller published in 1941 and released as a movie in 1943, directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Joan Crawford and Fred MacMurray. "Hide and seek with death - in the shadow of terror... The hallmarks of a MacInnes novel of suspense are as individual and as clearly stamped as a Hitchcock thriller." -The New York Times.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Liz1564
Above Suspicion is a spy novel published in 1941. Oxford professor Richard Myles and his wife Frances are approached by a mysterious friend and asked to do some amateur espionage work during their annual holiday in Germany and Austria. It is the mid 1930's and the couple are chosen because they
The book is almost a puzzle. The Myles' are supposed to follow a trail from agent to agent to see why the unnamed British intelligence agency has lost operatives and cannot contact their head man at the top of the chain. So off they go, first to a nightclub in Paris where an arranged meeting ends with Richard being slipped a guide to Southern Germany. After deciphering pin pricks on the maps and pencil dots in margins. he sees an itinerary of train stations, hotels, and villages emerge. Clues include hats with roses, snippets of song, chessmen. On their journey they link up with allies, meet old acquaintances who are now dangerous, and strangers who get them out of tight spots. Of course, in the end nothing goes as planned and instead of being mere observers they are embroiled in Nazi evil.
Above Suspicions is a fun read, another example of the good guys being more clever and braver than the bad guys who do some incredibly silly things. It is a romantic adventure not to be taken too seriously full of noble ideals flung in the faces of the not-too-bright enemy.
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would be "above suspicion," a normal young couple following their usual pattern of vacationing in the mountains. Also, Richard has an almost photogenic memory and an uncanny eye for detali which could come in handy.The book is almost a puzzle. The Myles' are supposed to follow a trail from agent to agent to see why the unnamed British intelligence agency has lost operatives and cannot contact their head man at the top of the chain. So off they go, first to a nightclub in Paris where an arranged meeting ends with Richard being slipped a guide to Southern Germany. After deciphering pin pricks on the maps and pencil dots in margins. he sees an itinerary of train stations, hotels, and villages emerge. Clues include hats with roses, snippets of song, chessmen. On their journey they link up with allies, meet old acquaintances who are now dangerous, and strangers who get them out of tight spots. Of course, in the end nothing goes as planned and instead of being mere observers they are embroiled in Nazi evil.
Above Suspicions is a fun read, another example of the good guys being more clever and braver than the bad guys who do some incredibly silly things. It is a romantic adventure not to be taken too seriously full of noble ideals flung in the faces of the not-too-bright enemy.
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LibraryThing member tripleblessings
Richard Myles and his young wife Frances are suspected of being spies while on a European vacation. Good suspense.
LibraryThing member MEENIEREADS
Prehaps when this book was first published its genre was all new. That would explain all the extra printings in 1941. As a child of the 2nd half of the 20th century who has read many,many thrillers and spy novels over the years this one seemed very hard to follow! I could never get the real sense
I kept thinking how innocent it all seemed as I look back with the all knowing eyes of history and the horror that was the second world war.
One of the good guys in the book says"I don't want to be the skeleton at the feast". I found this very interesting as first of all,until I read Chris Bohijian's book with that title I had never heard that expression before. And,just to think about the part of WW II that his novel was about once again brought the thought of how little they in the novel could imagine of what was to come.
Ms.MacInnes must have improved her style because I know I read many of her books as a teenager back in the late 60's,early 70's.
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of exactly what is was Richard and Frances were to pull off! I liked trying to imagine the beautiful areas they traveled to but the dense,rambling no dialogue to speak of style of writing just left me cold.I kept thinking how innocent it all seemed as I look back with the all knowing eyes of history and the horror that was the second world war.
One of the good guys in the book says"I don't want to be the skeleton at the feast". I found this very interesting as first of all,until I read Chris Bohijian's book with that title I had never heard that expression before. And,just to think about the part of WW II that his novel was about once again brought the thought of how little they in the novel could imagine of what was to come.
Ms.MacInnes must have improved her style because I know I read many of her books as a teenager back in the late 60's,early 70's.
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LibraryThing member Ceysa
I love this book from the very beginning.
The couple has so much dimension, they work together as a real married couple does. The impulsive nature of one is offset by the precision of the other and they make friends and influence people in real ways.
One of my favorite touches was the use of the
Real body language and actions reveals them to trouble again and again, yet the good guys prevail!
The couple has so much dimension, they work together as a real married couple does. The impulsive nature of one is offset by the precision of the other and they make friends and influence people in real ways.
One of my favorite touches was the use of the
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Christmas Carol in such a way that reveals the truth without totally blowing their cover, even though it is badly destroyed by an old German acquaintance who is the enemy.Real body language and actions reveals them to trouble again and again, yet the good guys prevail!
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LibraryThing member picardyrose
Married couple at Oxford is sent to France to find out what happened to an MI6 operative (well, that's not what they were called, but you know what I mean). All thy have to do is follow a series of clues from person to person while looking like tourists and avoiding the notice of the Nazis. Good
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luck with that. Show Less
LibraryThing member jeffome
Nice read. Interesting take on the Nazi impact on Europe written before American and English direct involvement in what was to become WWII, with remarkably accurate predictions of the horrors of Nazi-ism and the need to stop ignoring what was about to come....that pre-war perspective being my
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favorite part of the book. A typically good spy novel with a few too many coincidences to suit me, keeping it out of 4-star territory. But i read it quickly and was always interested to find out what came next......I have every book MacInnes wrote, so this is the start of much longer ride! Show Less
LibraryThing member DeltaQueen50
I originally discovered Helen MacInnes when I was about thirteen and I promptly devoured anything by her that I could get my hands on. I was very happy to see that some of her books have been issued for the Kindle and I chose to start my re-reading with her first book, Above Suspicion. This is the
Of course nothing is simple in Nazi Germany and eventually they find themselves on the run and, fortunately for them, relying on help from an American newspaper man, a British tourist and a few anti-Nazi Germans. The author allowed the story to unfold slowly as the couple wanders across France and Germany, sightseeing and hiking along the way. The mood darkens and the tension tightens as they enter Germany and continues to rise until the last few chapters in which the action is non-stop.
I enjoyed my re-introduction to this author. Having grown up on Enid Blyton and Agatha Christie, these characters felt familiar and very British. I am looking forward to re-reading more from Helen MacInnes.
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story of a normal English couple who just before they leave on vacation in the summer of 1939, are approached by an old friend who asks them to take on simple mission of locating an agent that has not been heard from for awhile. Of course nothing is simple in Nazi Germany and eventually they find themselves on the run and, fortunately for them, relying on help from an American newspaper man, a British tourist and a few anti-Nazi Germans. The author allowed the story to unfold slowly as the couple wanders across France and Germany, sightseeing and hiking along the way. The mood darkens and the tension tightens as they enter Germany and continues to rise until the last few chapters in which the action is non-stop.
I enjoyed my re-introduction to this author. Having grown up on Enid Blyton and Agatha Christie, these characters felt familiar and very British. I am looking forward to re-reading more from Helen MacInnes.
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LibraryThing member VintageReader
After a spate of reading historical novels set in World War II, it was interesting to read a novel that was contemporary to that period. I've read a lot of Helen MacInnes, but had never read this one. I appreciated the modern edition from Titan, but did spot quite a few scanning/OCR errors.
This is
This is
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MacInnes's first novel, and it kind of shows. There are a lot of unbelievable coincidences--the way Richard and Frances keep running into the same two guys made me suspect for most of the book that those guys were actually spies who were following them, and everybody's competence at espionage was a little weird. And for them to run into their employee, who just happens to be in a relationship with someone else they meet, is even less believable. But her writing, as always, is just wonderful. Her writing never seems dated or out of touch (although her politics are generally on display, so sometimes the lens of history provides an interesting perspective). I wouldn't necessarily recommend this one if you've never read anything else she's written; I'd probably start with one of her better-known ones like The Salzburg Connection. But certainly this is an absorbing read and a fascinating look at Europe in 1939. Show Less
LibraryThing member Eyejaybee
I am always intrigued to see how literary tastes develop and change. ‘Above Suspicion’, published in 1941 and set in the summer of 1939 in the final few months before the outbreak of the Second World War, was Helen MacInnes’s first novel. It was very well received, spawning a film starring
It is fair to say that the novel has not aged well. It leans heavily on the tradition of the fast-paced world of Richard Hannay, and in many ways made me think of ‘Greenmantle’ though it lacks John Buchan’s beautiful prose. Richard Myles, and Oxford academic, and his wife Frances are commissioned by an old friend to spend their annual summer vacation travelling across Europe, moving from convoluted arrangements to meet one agent after another, until they can finally contact the lynchpin in the network who will, it is hoped, have some vital information to pass on to them.
Over the last fifty years or so, the espionage novel has undergone a major evolution. John le Carre has banished forever the world of the carefree amateur, wandering around Europe and swapping contrived password phrases. The Corinthian values of John Buchan’s characters, and the glamour and hi-tech accessories that characterise the James Bond series and its many imitators, have been superseded by le Carre’s realism, showing the world of espionage as one steeped in shabbiness, squalor and despair. I suspect that Helen MacInnes was always harking back to the values and literary tastes of a former and more favourable day. Sadly her book now seems lamentably out of date. That is, of course, no surprise, given that it is now seventy six years old, but it seems to have aged more heavily that many of its contemporaries.
I was surprised, however, at many of the values it expressed. One might expect a novel written in the 1940s by a man to express what now seem uncomfortably male chauvinist views, but it still came as a shock to see how heavily MacInnes herself bought into, and seemingly endorsed, that scheme of presumptions.
It was entertaining, but principally as a curio, and I doubt whether I shall be reading any more of her books in the foreseeable future.
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Joan Crawford and Fred MacMurray, and launched her on a successful career writing fast paced spy thrillers with female protagonists. MacInnes was later dubbed by critics as the ‘Queen of Spy Fiction’.It is fair to say that the novel has not aged well. It leans heavily on the tradition of the fast-paced world of Richard Hannay, and in many ways made me think of ‘Greenmantle’ though it lacks John Buchan’s beautiful prose. Richard Myles, and Oxford academic, and his wife Frances are commissioned by an old friend to spend their annual summer vacation travelling across Europe, moving from convoluted arrangements to meet one agent after another, until they can finally contact the lynchpin in the network who will, it is hoped, have some vital information to pass on to them.
Over the last fifty years or so, the espionage novel has undergone a major evolution. John le Carre has banished forever the world of the carefree amateur, wandering around Europe and swapping contrived password phrases. The Corinthian values of John Buchan’s characters, and the glamour and hi-tech accessories that characterise the James Bond series and its many imitators, have been superseded by le Carre’s realism, showing the world of espionage as one steeped in shabbiness, squalor and despair. I suspect that Helen MacInnes was always harking back to the values and literary tastes of a former and more favourable day. Sadly her book now seems lamentably out of date. That is, of course, no surprise, given that it is now seventy six years old, but it seems to have aged more heavily that many of its contemporaries.
I was surprised, however, at many of the values it expressed. One might expect a novel written in the 1940s by a man to express what now seem uncomfortably male chauvinist views, but it still came as a shock to see how heavily MacInnes herself bought into, and seemingly endorsed, that scheme of presumptions.
It was entertaining, but principally as a curio, and I doubt whether I shall be reading any more of her books in the foreseeable future.
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LibraryThing member Limelite
The last time I read anything by Helen MacInnes I was in high school. But I still remember how much I enjoyed one of the first espionage novels I'd ever read. Then I filed her away in the recesses of mind as the female Eric Ambler, both writers of character-driven realistic espionage fiction.
in the
Without exaggeration, I was hooked by the first chapter and read the entire book in two sittings, interrupted by a short night's sleep. Yep, MacInnes was un-put-downable.
Set between the Phony War and the invasion of Poland, the story builds around a married couple who are recruited as amateur sleuths to determine if a British network of agents in place across Europe has been compromised, or if it is still operational and able to carry on getting "sensitive" Europeans out of Nazi territory and safely away to freedom.
MacInnes is deft in managing multiple characters, her prose is intelligent and realistic, peppered with insightful comments regarding tyranny and tyrants that is sadly pertinent in our time nearly 80 years later. What I liked about this book was how authentic the people seemed as they went about matching wits with the enemy without the benefit of high technology. She tells a simple and straightforward story that unwinds at a natural pace; events are skillfully integrated with gentle twists. Perhaps it is slightly old-fashioned compared to the techno-thrillers and brutality-filled action adventure books that have overtaken a once more clearly delineated era and a style that is driven by normal people behaving in understated heroic ways during abnormal times.
If you enjoy tales about believable characters who live on the page rather than stories about impossibly skilled, knowledgeable, and over-trained "professional" spy types, then you'll want to find a cozy chair with good light and spend some leisure hours swept away in an adventure that you could have yourself -- if you were lucky enough to appear in a spy story by Helen MacInnes.
in the
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inexplicable ways that ideas come to us, it popped into my muind to see if her works had withstood the test of time. Would I be able to read her yarns today with the same enthusiasm that I'd had in my callow youth? So, for a test I randomly chose Above Suspicion and settled down to read.Without exaggeration, I was hooked by the first chapter and read the entire book in two sittings, interrupted by a short night's sleep. Yep, MacInnes was un-put-downable.
Set between the Phony War and the invasion of Poland, the story builds around a married couple who are recruited as amateur sleuths to determine if a British network of agents in place across Europe has been compromised, or if it is still operational and able to carry on getting "sensitive" Europeans out of Nazi territory and safely away to freedom.
MacInnes is deft in managing multiple characters, her prose is intelligent and realistic, peppered with insightful comments regarding tyranny and tyrants that is sadly pertinent in our time nearly 80 years later. What I liked about this book was how authentic the people seemed as they went about matching wits with the enemy without the benefit of high technology. She tells a simple and straightforward story that unwinds at a natural pace; events are skillfully integrated with gentle twists. Perhaps it is slightly old-fashioned compared to the techno-thrillers and brutality-filled action adventure books that have overtaken a once more clearly delineated era and a style that is driven by normal people behaving in understated heroic ways during abnormal times.
If you enjoy tales about believable characters who live on the page rather than stories about impossibly skilled, knowledgeable, and over-trained "professional" spy types, then you'll want to find a cozy chair with good light and spend some leisure hours swept away in an adventure that you could have yourself -- if you were lucky enough to appear in a spy story by Helen MacInnes.
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LibraryThing member Crazymamie
I picked this book up in a Kindle sale back in 2013, and I finally got around to reading it thanks to another book - A World Gone Mad: The Diaries of Astrid Lindgren 1939-45. Lindgren made a habit of listing the books that they gave and received for holidays and birthdays, and Above Suspicion was
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one of them. Published in 1941, this is set in 1939, making it contemporary fiction of WWII. It's enjoyable despite the surplus of coincidences that the plot depends upon. She did a good job of building the tension and then escalating the pacing, especially for a first novel. I would call this cozy espionage - not as tight or as dark as say le Carré or Steinhauer and more character driven. Show Less
LibraryThing member Eyejaybee
I am always intrigued to see how literary tastes develop and change. ‘Above Suspicion’, published in 1941 and set in the summer of 1939 in the final few months before the outbreak of the Second World War, was Helen MacInnes’s first novel. It was very well received, spawning a film starring
Show More
Joan Crawford and Fred MacMurray, and launched her on a successful career writing fast paced spy thrillers with female protagonists. MacInnes was later dubbed by critics as the ‘Queen of Spy Fiction’. It is fair to say that the novel has not aged well. It leans heavily on the tradition of the fast-paced world of Richard Hannay, and in many ways made me think of ‘Greenmantle’ though it lacks John Buchan’s beautiful prose. Richard Myles, and Oxford academic, and his wife Frances are commissioned by an old friend to spend their annual summer vacation travelling across Europe, moving from convoluted arrangements to meet one agent after another, until they can finally contact the lynchpin in the network who will, it is hoped, have some vital information to pass on to them. Over the last fifty years or so, the espionage novel has undergone a major evolution. John le Carre has banished forever the world of the carefree amateur, wandering around Europe and swapping contrived password phrases. The Corinthian values of John Buchan’s characters, and the glamour and hi-tech accessories that characterise the James Bond series and its many imitators, have been superseded by le Carre’s realism, showing the world of espionage as one steeped in shabbiness, squalor and despair. I suspect that Helen MacInnes was always harking back to the values and literary tastes of a former and more favourable day. Sadly her book now seems lamentably out of date. That is, of course, no surprise, given that it is now seventy six years old, but it seems to have aged more heavily that many of its contemporaries. I was surprised, however, at many of the values it expressed. One might expect a novel written in the 1940s by a man to express what now seem uncomfortably male chauvinist views, but it still came as a shock to see how heavily MacInnes herself bought into, and seemingly endorsed, that scheme of presumptions. It was entertaining, but principally as a curio, and I doubt whether I shall be reading any more of her books in the foreseeable future. Show Less
LibraryThing member grandpahobo
The majority of the story is spent describing the towns and cities of in Europe at the beginning of WWII, including lot of detail about the countryside. There are some quite suspenseful scenes, but its not consistent. This very much reminds me of several British noir films set during this time.
LibraryThing member FerneMysteryReader
The summer of 1939. Richard Myles, Oxford don, and his wife Frances receive a visit from Peter Galt. Peter, a friend that works in the Foreign Office, has returned from Bucharest and needs to lie low. He has a special request for them to determine if a fellow compatriot is present at his assigned
The well-written story builds page-turning drama and suspense. The descriptive writing immerses the reader in the period and setting, from the pleasures of a walk on a summer day to the twist of on the fly planning an escape route.
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location. Richard’s infallible memory is crucial to their success. Unlike a solo agent, the couple’s typical summer vacation gives them a natural and effective cover. They begin in Paris, and each subsequent connection will provide them with the following location."If you find your man, then wire, 'Arriving Monday', or 'Tuesday', or whatever day you actually saw him. If you don’t find him, wire ‘Cancel reservations'." My high school librarian introduced me to the espionage novels by Helen MacInnes, nicknamed Queen of Suspense, in high school. However, I knew I had never read this title from the description. I was fascinated that the book was the author’s first novel, published in 1941. It is essential to realize that this mission is in the period before technology conveniences of cell phones, internet connections on portable devices, and social media, instead using their intelligence with creative spontaneity if any part of a plan goes awry as commitment is independent with no option for resources and permits no failure.The well-written story builds page-turning drama and suspense. The descriptive writing immerses the reader in the period and setting, from the pleasures of a walk on a summer day to the twist of on the fly planning an escape route.
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Language
Original language
English
ISBN
9781781161531
Physical description
352 p.; 5.1 inches
Pages
352