Agent in Place

by Helen MacInnes

This sophisticated narrative of spy/counterspy is set in Washington, where the Russians have planted an "agent in place." For nine years he has worked himself quietly into the fabric of government and society. Dedicated and patient, he has everyone's respect. It is a plot where amateurs are the villains and professionals are the heroes -- particularly a team of British and French agents whose job is to foil further Russian intervention.

The story moves from Washington to New York to Menton on the French Riviera, where it concludes in a series of stunning revelations, dismaying setbacks and breathless discoveries.

Genres: Fiction, Espionage, Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Mystery Thriller, Adventure

Mass Market Paperback

Published April 12, 1983

About the author

Helen MacInnes was a Scottish-American author of espionage novels. She graduated from the University of Glasgow in Scotland in 1928 with a degree in French and German. A librarian, she married Professor Gilbert Highet in 1932 and moved with her husband to New York in 1937 so he could teach classics at Columbia University. She wrote her first novel, Above Suspicion, in 1939. She wrote many bestselling suspense novels and became an American citizen in 1951.

Reviews

[Alan Cook]

Published in 1976, this book has aged well. We are still spying on Russia, and Russia is still spying on us. One good thing about spy stories is that they are often travelogues. This book starts in New York and Washington, but then goes to Menton, France, which is on the coast not far from Monaco and Nice. That interested me since I've been to both of those places. At first, it's a bit difficult to figure out who everyone is and what side he or she is on. It gets easier as the story goes along. The plot involves the theft of sensitive documents engineered by a Russian spy who is the agent in place of the title. People get killed, but most of the violence is off-screen. One of the interesting facets of the book is descriptions of tradecraft--showing how spies preserve their covers and prevent their enemies from unmasking them. There is also a detailed description of planning and executing a caper designed to fool the enemy.

[Ron Wroblewski]

I enjoy Helen's writings. This book, as well as others, is concerned about the Cold War and Russia stealing secret documents by Agents (spies) planted in the US and other Western nations. Who is a spy and who isn't. Is a defector really a defector? Should secrets really be secrets or should the general population be made aware of them.

[Simon Mcleish]

Originally published on my blog here in January 2001.

At its beginning, Agent in Place is about the leak of a NATO memo to the American press. However, it becomes clear that the Russians have orchestrated the leak of the comparatively innocuous first part of the memo to get hold of the second and third parts, which detail the reasoning behind the first part and so provide information which will enable them to unmask important Western agents.

As the investigation into the leak proceeds, and the action of the novel moves from New York to the Riviera resort of Menton, it keeps becoming clear that the situation is more serious than the reader and the investigators suspected. This is how MacInnes raises the tension and keeps up the suspense in what is a good Cold War thriller.

[Denise]

How did I manage to go through life and about half a gazillion of Cold War spy novels without ever coming across the name Helen MacInnes? This may have been my first book of hers, but certainly not my last. A little slow-paced, but very well plotted and suspenseful - I'll have more of this, thanks very much.

[Liz]

Re-read this book to see if it held the same magic as it did thirty years ago, and largely, it did. MacInnes’ prose is propulsive and gripping, even if the mise en scene is of another time and world (ah, how cell phones and texting have all but erased labyrinthine miscommunication as a plot device!). Yet with fresh evidence of continued Sovie—- er, Russian efforts at diversion and misinformation in U.S. affairs, this book could not be more timely. Highly enjoyable.

[Bev Monson]

Good. Fast paced. Reminds me of James Bond, but cleaner :)

[Wendy]

Agents, agents everywhere

Slow starting, I thought, with a bit too much ruminating by a bit too many characters. But it shaped up into a good thriller.

[Jeff Dickison]

Set during the Ford administration this is a tale of the Russkies trying to sabotage NATO by using a spy ring with an agent who had been in place for 9 years. Of course, today, they have a better operative in place, our president, who is still sabotaging NATO. MacInnes was married to a real security agent and knew her stuff. Well written, concise, with realistic plotting. Recommended to lovers of spy novels.

[David Zimmerman]

An entertaining read.

[Ann]

This Cold War espionage story starts with Alexis, a Russian spy embedded in the administrative staff of a Washington insider, receiving a phone call summoning him to a meeting with his old mentor from his Moskow training days. This is undoubtedly related to the fact that Alexis is about to receive a copy from a NATO memorandum, smuggled out from a think tank by the discontented analyst Chuck Kelso, a document that could discredit the West's position on détente. But the older man ends up getting mugged and wounded immediately after their encounter in Central Park. Under the influence of anesthetic, he mumbles something in Russian, and it becomes clear that there is an espionage angle.

Alexis manages to get his hands on the entire memorandum, including an analysis that reveals the identity of NATO's highest-ranking "agent in place" in Moskow. Will that agent be able to escape from Moskow before the KGB comes for him?

It appears that he does, since a few weeks later he is living in Menton in France. Is it a coincidence that the think tank that employed Chuck Kelso is now opening a center in that same town? Tony Lawton, a British Intelligence agent, travels to France to keep an eye on the situation.

This book is clearly inspired by the true stories of the Pentagon Papers, Watergate and various defections and betrayals during the Cold War. For me, the book lacked structure. The hero, Tony Lawton, appeared rather late in the book. The subplot, whereby Tom Kelso, Chuck's brother, is briefly suspected of having leaked the memo, is weak. The last part of the book, which has to do with spiriting the defector out of Menton and into Brussels, was a confusing mix of three or four different vessels, people coming and going in various disguises, bugs planted in watches... I couldn't really figure it out.

[Sheila]

These old-style spy novels by Helen MacInnes are really dated in some ways (for instance, the author's use of surnames for men and first names for women makes me a bit crazy), but nonetheless this book was one of those 'magical' reads for me when I read it, back probably in the late 1980s. The first few pages just transfixed me, and I was hooked! This may have been the first spy novel I had read, and I then went through a whole phase of reading spy novels and non-fiction books about spies. It was quite an obsession for a little while there! This book really has a special memory for me because of that amazing excitement it brought when I first read it. I don't know if anyone else reading it will feel the same way I did, but for me it was an amazing reading experience.

[Rodger Payne]

I've never read anything by MacInnes, but will look for more of her books. This is an interesting tale told in an entertaining fashion. The New York and European sections of the book are particularly good. Not all of the characters are fully developed, including the young man who sets most of the plot into motion by taking a secret memo from his workplace to pass along to the media. At the beginning of the book, there are so many characters that seem somewhat similar that it might be difficult for a reader to sort out. Eventually, that all clears up.

It seemed appropriate to read this cold war story in a year when news about alleged Russian spies in America seem relevant again.

[Kristin]

Good spy/political novel...favorite Helen MacInnes book...moves faster and doesn't drag in the wrap up.

[Julia Holloway]

Excellent spy novel - loved reading about how spies worked before all of the technology in use now.

[Peter Kavanagh]

Enjoyable little thriller. Had some good tension and mid 70's period detail. A must for fans of the espionage genre.

[Brian]

Really liked this one, and her other books I have read. Just solid espionage fiction. Communists, Nazis, double agents, twists and so on.

[Ellen]

This Tony Lawton spy novel had just enough suspense and just enough folksiness (in France) to suit summertime travel reading. I'm sure I read some of her work decades ago, and now will look for more.

[Mike Corgan]

Great book. Like reading a Hitchcock spy novel.

[Melinda]

My favorite so far. Loved what happened near the end. Poetic justice.

[Greer Andjanetta]

A typically good HM novel, this time about a 'sleeper' communist agent in Washington. A bit dated now but still an entertaining story.

[Mia]

It is hard to believe how long ago this book was written except for the lack of cell phones. But the tension begins as an agent in place gets a telephone call and we are launched into a great espionage story. I found out about this author, previously unknown to me, from a friend and found one of her books at the library. I literally could not put it down.

[truenorth]

A good quick read.

[Mark Edlund]

Mystery fiction - a gentle little spy story where all the characters smoke, secret documents are paper and are stolen with a miniature camera. Of course, the final chapters are set in the French Riviera. NATO documents are missing and the Cold War is on. Guns are fired, boats blow up and bad guys get their comeuppance.
Canadian references - character suggested to hide in Toronto or in a remote Canadian farm; Russian spy kicked out of Canada; spy has a Canadian passport; mention of Canadian Special Forces post D-Day.

[Vincent Paul]

Tantalizing ...

This sophisticated narrative of spy/counterspy is set in Washington, where the Russians have planted an "agent in place." For nine years he has worked himself quietly into the fabric of government and society. Dedicated and patient, he has everyone's respect. It is a plot where amateurs are the villains and professionals are the heroes -- particularly a team of British and French agents whose job is to foil further Russian intervention.

The story moves from Washington to New York to Menton on the French Riviera, where it concludes in a series of stunning revelations, dismaying setbacks and breathless discoveries.

[Jak60]

This is a very linear story; elegantly written, a story well crafted in the smallest details, unveiling a solid knowledge of the tradecraft. But the book did not manage to warm me up, it stayed rather cold and aseptic, the characters are rather sophisticated but they don't really get you emotionally involved.
And, as I said, the plot is kind of linear: you would expect the usual twists a d turns at the end, except that there are not....the story ends quite logically as one would expect.....

[Sylvie]

This novel is particularly good if you are a child of the 1970s and 1980s, or maybe if you’ve just read a lot of Cold War spy novels. It reminded me somewhat of Three Days of the Condor. It was a bit slow at times but I really liked that we got both the Soviet and U.S. perspectives and that it didn’t simply follow one hero from beginning to end. I liked the characters and would definitely read more by this author if in the mood for a spy story.

[Ant Koplowitz]

I enjoyed this. It's a fairly slow-paced novel set in the US and France and concerns the leak of. NATO-related secrets via a government think- tank. Helen MacInnes knew the espionage world well and there's a believability to her characters, if not always their high-minded idealism.

[Cws]

A Mac

[Ruth]

good. thriller of the '70s era. well crafted.

[Catherine Woodman]

This is written at the height of the cold war, and it shows. Histrionic to distraction, things that were no doubt hair raising in the 1970's seem overdone and dull now.