Having accidentally plunged into the middle of the Julia Probyn series by Ann Bridge, I already knew some of the plot points of this book from reading a later one. So far, I find the two non-series books by her that I read first to be better than these Cold War thrillers.
This book begins with the British authorities in Lisbon being concerned with the release of Countess Hetta Páloczy from Communist Hungary. The countess was only ten years old when her father had to flee Hungary with the advent of the Russians. Hetta, suffering from scarlet fever, had to be left in her convent school, and her father tried for the rest of his life to get her out of Hungary. Now she is being released to her mother.
And my first question is, why would they make a person leaving the Eastern Bloc travel across Europe to Lisbon to be received? Surely, at least one person would have got on the train with her as soon as they crossed the Iron Curtain.
Anyway, once the convents were disbanded, Hetta stayed with one of the nuns, who became housekeeper to a theologian, Father Antal Horvath. At least, Hetta was doing the work, because the nun was so incompetent.
At the beginning of the novel, the situation is being discussed by Richard Atherley, the First Secretary at the British Embassy and Townsend Waller, who is in the same position with the U. S. Embassy. Both of them also discuss the girl’s mother, whose biggest concern seems to be not the arrival of her long-lost daughter but getting an invitation to an upcoming royal wedding.
Hetta turns out to have a good but rigid sense of values and doesn’t get along with her mother at all. However, others are much taken with her, including both First Secretaries and Julia Probyn, a reporter in town to cover the royal wedding.
Soon, though, another Hungarian arrives, this one an agent being brought West with information about conditions in the East. It happens to be Hetta’s beloved former employer, Dr. Antal Horvath. Hetta is asked to identify him at the airport to make sure he is legit. Horvath is in danger, because the Communists want him back, and so is Hetta, because she knows where he is. Julia helps them by arranging with her former employer, the Duke of Ericeira, for him to stay there.
From this rather slow start-up, the book eventually becomes about protecting Father Antal, rescuing Hetta from the Communists, and a budding love affair between Hetta and Richard Atherley. It’s a little slow moving for a thriller, and I was especially astonished when Bridge began describing the scenery while several of the protagonists were chasing after Hetty, who has been kidnapped. I found both girls’ various suitors to be a little tedious, but Hetty is very likable, and some of the secondary characters, including the Duke, his daughter, her nanny, and Julia’s old friend Mrs. Hathaway, are delightful.
What? Me Read? 