She was Graham Greene and Eric Ambler’s contemporary, and all her nearly two dozen spy novels were bestsellers. (Four were adapted to film: Above Suspicion, Assignment in Brittany, The Venetian Affair, and The Salzburg Connection.) In books that appeared from 1941 to 1984, Helen MacInnes explored the world of espionage in World War II and the Cold War. In Above Suspicion, her first novel, she plumbed the depths of fear that descended on Europe in the months leading up to the Nazi invasion of Poland. The story in the book unfolds more slowly than readers today have come to expect in the age of the quick-cut scene shift. But it’s all in service to MacInnes’ objective, which is to convey the mood of uneasiness that gripped Britain and the Continent as Hitler’s strategy became clear. For its portrayal of Europe on the brink of WW2, it’s a worthy effort.
An amateurish introduction to the world of espionage
Today readers might expect a former intelligence officer to have written this novel and imbued it with the authenticity it lacks. But for its time, when MI6 was a club of upper-class amateurs and the CIA would not be established for another six years, Above Suspicion introduced Western readers to the shadowy world of espionage. The sophistication that Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union brought to the practice of spycraft was still unknown in Britain and the United States. Read as a period piece, it’s easy to understand why it was an instant success on its publication in 1941. Today, the story comes across as slow-moving and lame. Her later work was more convincing.
Above Suspicion by Helen MacInnes (1941) 337 pages ★★★☆☆
An academic couple that’s “above suspicion”
The conceit on which MacInnes bases her story is that some unnamed British intelligence service—probably MI6, which was then entirely unknown to the public—recruits a young English couple to conduct a mission on the Continent. “I’ve been hoping that you would go abroad as usual this summer,” an old acquaintance named Peter Galt tells them, “and that you’d travel by Paris, meet a man there, and then continue the journey as he directs. At the end of it you should be able to send us some information which we need very badly.” Now, Richard Myles is an Oxford don specializing in English lyric poetry. His wife Frances Myles is, following the conventions of the day, very bright and sophisticated but unemployed. No one would suspect them of being in the spy service. They’re “above suspicion.”
Four amateur spies take on the SS
Before setting out on their journey to France—it will later take them to Germany, Austria, and Italy as well—Richard and Frances encounter an old German friend who’d studied with Richard at Oxford. Freiherr Sigurd von Aschenhausen is clearly a Nazi, and Frances is having none of his opinions. Thus the stage is set for an inevitable clash. But they set out unsuspecting and arrive in Paris. There, they befriend a couple of young men who are traveling together, one a British businessman, the other an American reporter.
For reasons MacInnes never explains, the four end up encountering one another all along the Myles’s path across Europe. And somehow, these four amateurs manage to outsmart and outfight von Aschenhausen and the thugs he commands and return unscathed to Britain. (As best I can tell, von Aschenhausen is an officer in the SD, the intelligence service of the SS and the Nazi Party.) All this in the tension-filled summer in the run-up to the Nazi invasion of Poland.
A likely story.
In fairness, MacInnes writes fluidly, and her physical descriptions of people and places are superb. And she does conjure up the mood of the time, when all Europe shivered in anticipation of the war they were half-convinced was inevitable.
About the author
Above Suspicion was the first of Helen MacInnes‘ 19 standalone novels, which appeared every two of three years from 1939 to 1984. (She also wrote three in a short-lived series in the 1970s.) All her books were bestsellers, and many found their way onto movie screens.
MacInnes (1907-85) was born and educated in Glasgow, Scotland, where she received an MA from the eponymous university. She then earned a degree in librarianship from University College, London. MacInnes and her husband, literary critic Gilbert Highet, moved to New York City in 1937, where they became naturalized US citizens in 1951.
For related reading
I’ve also reviewed (and enjoyed more) the author’s 1968 spy novel, The Salzburg Connection (Nazis, Communists, and Western spies clash in this classic spy novel).
You’ll find other great reading at:
- The 15 best espionage novels
- Good nonfiction books about espionage
- The best spy novelists writing today
- 10 top WWII books about espionage
- Top 10 historical mysteries and thrillers
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