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The Venetian Affair
Fenner burned Rosenfeld's message, reminding himself wryly that he was behaving in the very best tradition. This was a game not too difficult to learn, he thought. A game? A game in deadly earnest. 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? Where, he wondered suddenly, would Venice lead?
304 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1963
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About the author
Helen MacInnes
67 books258 followersHelen 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews
February 19, 2018
Helen MacInnes' 1963 Cold War spy thriller still packs a pretty good punch.
Bill Fenner, one of those competent amateur sleuths/spies that MacInnes is fond of, is a drama critic and an ex-journalist, and also an ex-operative of sorts. He travels from New York City to Paris, I think to write a play and vacation? Anyway, neither of those things happens. He starts with an accidentally traded raincoat in a fortuitous airport mixup, finds a major surprise hidden in the other person's raincoat, makes contact with some embassy folks, and it all kind of goes wild from there. Oh, and there's a girl, another amateur spy of sorts. She's quite competent as well, with some allowances for 1960s culture.
I was rather bored by the first half and was having some trouble keeping all of the players straight, but once our main characters jumped on a train going from Paris to Venice and more pieces of the conspiracy were disclosed, everything started coming together for me. I couldn't put this book down while I was reading the second half.
2 1/2 stars for the first half but 5 for the second half. And now I really want to travel to Venice. :)
February 2018 group read with the Retro Reads group.
Bill Fenner, one of those competent amateur sleuths/spies that MacInnes is fond of, is a drama critic and an ex-journalist, and also an ex-operative of sorts. He travels from New York City to Paris, I think to write a play and vacation? Anyway, neither of those things happens. He starts with an accidentally traded raincoat in a fortuitous airport mixup, finds a major surprise hidden in the other person's raincoat, makes contact with some embassy folks, and it all kind of goes wild from there. Oh, and there's a girl, another amateur spy of sorts. She's quite competent as well, with some allowances for 1960s culture.
I was rather bored by the first half and was having some trouble keeping all of the players straight, but once our main characters jumped on a train going from Paris to Venice and more pieces of the conspiracy were disclosed, everything started coming together for me. I couldn't put this book down while I was reading the second half.
2 1/2 stars for the first half but 5 for the second half. And now I really want to travel to Venice. :)
February 2018 group read with the Retro Reads group.
October 3, 2021
Real Rating: 3.5* of five, rounded down because it doesn't stand out among this author's work, though it *does* among that of her contemporaries
Solid Cold-War thriller, though very much a book of two halves. About 160pp are your eat-your-kale-and-like-it investment...learn the names, and there are more than usual, get a grasp of the stakes...but the last half-plus is a race to the finish line that was unputdownable.
Author MacInnes wrote superior thrillers. Her deft touch with characterization was so economical that I left the read thinking, "how did so few words tell this whole story so satisfyingly?" She did it time after time, too.
I heartily recommend dropping this $1.99: https://smile.amazon.com/Venetian-Aff...
Solid Cold-War thriller, though very much a book of two halves. About 160pp are your eat-your-kale-and-like-it investment...learn the names, and there are more than usual, get a grasp of the stakes...but the last half-plus is a race to the finish line that was unputdownable.
Author MacInnes wrote superior thrillers. Her deft touch with characterization was so economical that I left the read thinking, "how did so few words tell this whole story so satisfyingly?" She did it time after time, too.
I heartily recommend dropping this $1.99: https://smile.amazon.com/Venetian-Aff...
February 11, 2018
I first read this sometime in the mid '60s ('63?'64? )* and loved it. MacInnes did Cold War spy thrillers so well. I haven't re-read it in almost 50 years (!), so it will be interesting to see how well it holds up during our Feb '18 Retro Reads group read. I am looking forward to revisiting the era.
ETA 2/11/2018
I first read this as a teen shortly after it came out. Absolutely gripping and I loved the romance.
There is nothing like reading a thriller when neither you nor the author know how the much larger conflict will be resolved. This time around, of course, it is historical fiction. Very enjoyable, but that frisson of uncertainty was missing for this reader. However, the story itself is still a taut thriller, with the success of the mission in doubt until the final pages. I didn't remember most of the plot details, only the main characters, from previous reads.
I was really fond of Bill Fenner, newspaper drama critic with an interesting past, who starts the ball rolling with a totally accidental raincoat switch at Orly Airport in Paris. He is well matched by Claire Connor, who is more than she first appears. They become two players in efforts to derail a Soviet plot to sow discord among the NATO allies. All very tricky, a bit convoluted, yet totally plausible. Most of the characters are well-developed--real people, not cardboard cut-outs. Paris and Venice make great backdrops for the action.
I'm glad I was prodded into re-reading the book. It held up fairly well; I had a great time.
* Oh, what I would give to stumble across my book logs from when I was in high school! I fear they are lost and gone forever. I do recall that I read 200-300 books a year during that time. I wonder what all they were?
ETA 2/11/2018
I first read this as a teen shortly after it came out. Absolutely gripping and I loved the romance.
There is nothing like reading a thriller when neither you nor the author know how the much larger conflict will be resolved. This time around, of course, it is historical fiction. Very enjoyable, but that frisson of uncertainty was missing for this reader. However, the story itself is still a taut thriller, with the success of the mission in doubt until the final pages. I didn't remember most of the plot details, only the main characters, from previous reads.
I was really fond of Bill Fenner, newspaper drama critic with an interesting past, who starts the ball rolling with a totally accidental raincoat switch at Orly Airport in Paris. He is well matched by Claire Connor, who is more than she first appears. They become two players in efforts to derail a Soviet plot to sow discord among the NATO allies. All very tricky, a bit convoluted, yet totally plausible. Most of the characters are well-developed--real people, not cardboard cut-outs. Paris and Venice make great backdrops for the action.
I'm glad I was prodded into re-reading the book. It held up fairly well; I had a great time.
* Oh, what I would give to stumble across my book logs from when I was in high school! I fear they are lost and gone forever. I do recall that I read 200-300 books a year during that time. I wonder what all they were?
February 11, 2018
Helen MacInnes was one of the top performers in the romantic spy thriller genre of yesteryear. This tale, set in the early 1960s, pits a smart American amateur, Bill Fenner, against a notoriously slippery Soviet operative who is planning a major terrorist attack that will be pinned on the Americans and Britons, thus destabilizing NATO. (You’ve got to give the Russians props for persistence—that plot line could be the basis for a cyber thriller today.)
MacInnes’s books are mostly set in tourist-bait European locations, and this one gives us both Paris and Venice, with a stint on an elegant train as a bonus. Fenner is an international reporter turned theater critic, divorced from a glamorous woman who was revealed to be a Soviet spy, and he is drawn into this fresh plot by virtue of an accidental exchange of raincoats at the airport. From that point all mayhem breaks loose, and the reader is taken on a wild ride where every stranger is a potential enemy and there are no safe havens.
I have to say that the first half of the book gripped me more than the second half; by the time the action arrived in Venice, 95 percent of the terror plot had been revealed and there were few further surprises, mostly just cat-and-mouse action. Nevertheless, it was a satisfying read, and I enjoyed the characters. I found myself wishing, paradoxically, for more of the lively and intelligent dialogue the hero and heroine indulged in during their scarce lighter moments.
MacInnes’s books are mostly set in tourist-bait European locations, and this one gives us both Paris and Venice, with a stint on an elegant train as a bonus. Fenner is an international reporter turned theater critic, divorced from a glamorous woman who was revealed to be a Soviet spy, and he is drawn into this fresh plot by virtue of an accidental exchange of raincoats at the airport. From that point all mayhem breaks loose, and the reader is taken on a wild ride where every stranger is a potential enemy and there are no safe havens.
I have to say that the first half of the book gripped me more than the second half; by the time the action arrived in Venice, 95 percent of the terror plot had been revealed and there were few further surprises, mostly just cat-and-mouse action. Nevertheless, it was a satisfying read, and I enjoyed the characters. I found myself wishing, paradoxically, for more of the lively and intelligent dialogue the hero and heroine indulged in during their scarce lighter moments.
November 1, 2019
I rounded my review up from 3.5 stars. MacInnes is one of my favorite authors from the 40's to the 80's but this tale of cold war intrigue is fueled by 3 coincidences, which is two coincidences too many in my book. As always MacInnes is very precise in her words and descriptions. If you can forgive her the unfortunate coincidences you will enjoy this tale. Recommended to MacInness' fans.
February 15, 2018
This was a group read for the Retro Reads group and I really enjoyed it. Not normally a spy novel reader, I read this one for this group read but also because I came of age in the Cold War era and remember the fears of growing up in that time. Being set in Paris and then in Venice also gives it added interest. I found it very entertaining and had a hard time putting it down.
April 29, 2021
I was very pleased when the Helen MacInnes novels began to appear as ebooks in 2013. I marked over half of them as books I wanted to re-read.
I discovered Helen MacInnes when I read the paperback of Snare of the Hunter in 1975, and I was hooked. Reading at least seven more of her novels that year, including The Venetian Affair.
I needed something different this weekend, and found Venetian Affair in my Kindle stash. So here I am, 40 years later, reading one of my favorite espionage authors. I had forgotten how fluid MacInnes was with both her description and dialogue. Her characters are interesting, believable, and relevant to the story being told. This novel is a thriller written at the height of the cold war--it still works.
I discovered Helen MacInnes when I read the paperback of Snare of the Hunter in 1975, and I was hooked. Reading at least seven more of her novels that year, including The Venetian Affair.
I needed something different this weekend, and found Venetian Affair in my Kindle stash. So here I am, 40 years later, reading one of my favorite espionage authors. I had forgotten how fluid MacInnes was with both her description and dialogue. Her characters are interesting, believable, and relevant to the story being told. This novel is a thriller written at the height of the cold war--it still works.
April 3, 2018
A fast paced, intelligent, retro-ish cold war espionage action extravaganza, with likable and competent main characters, an intense countdown to a deadline, and despicable villains, set in a gorgeously described Venice.
Bill Fenner and Claire Langley make a great team, handling a threat to Western Europe and undeniable mutual attraction. This was a very enjoyable read.
ATW 2018 Italy
Bill Fenner and Claire Langley make a great team, handling a threat to Western Europe and undeniable mutual attraction. This was a very enjoyable read.
ATW 2018 Italy
February 18, 2018
An enjoyable Cold War Era mystery/romance.
February 13, 2018
This Cold War thriller requires you to be on your mental toes to keep track of the characters and the somewhat lengthy setup. Once the action moves from Paris to Venice, it's non-stop as the main characters are constantly on the move, trying to outsmart the enemy. Venice, at least in those days, provided ample dark corners for hiding and seeking. The handsome hero Bill and his clever blonde love interest Claire even use gondolas to escape from the nefarious bad guys! It felt as if I were watching a vintage movie, and that isn't a criticism. I enjoyed the thrill of the chase.
December 3, 2021
The more books of Helen MacInnes that I read, the more I enjoy her take on the spy genre. The Venetian Affair, originally published in 1963 was probably my favorite so far.
Arts reporter Bill Fenner is asked to go to Paris by his publisher to get information from a French intellectual, who had been a member of the French underground during WWII. On his flight to Paris is a Russian agent, bringing a package to a contact in Paris. By chance, the agent suffers a heart attack at the Custom's check-in and in the ensuing confusion Fenner ends up with the Russians jacket and when he searches through to try and identify the owner, discovers a stash of cash hidden within.
Fenner involves the US Embassy and ends up part of a group trying to discover a plot to possibly assassinate DeGaulle. The story is a fascinating spy thriller that moves from Paris to Venice where there will be an exciting finale. Jenner will travel by rail with another American, Claire Langley, accompanied by various Allied intelligence people and also those of the enemy. They are to meet Fenner's ex-wife in Venice, a Communist sympathizer who wants to return to the US and is willing to give up mysterious, deadly Russian agent Kalganov, to do so.
That's enough plot for you. Suffice it to say that it's at times quite confusing. Are they being followed, who is on their side? I found the 1st half a bit slower, kind of nebulous and wordy at times but still, the characters get very nicely developed over the course of the first half. The focus is on Fenner, but at times the story moves to other characters, even the 'bad guys', to provide their perspective on various events and incidents. There is murder and the constant threat of it. And once the story moves to Venice, the pace picks up and the tension is ratcheted up so well that it left me quite breathless at times. MacInnes has a way with words and with story - telling that grabs your interest an moves you into the story. You can picture the scene, feel you are part of the action, understand the characters.
It was an excellent spy novel and just a great story. I definitely plan to explore MacInnes's work further. (4.5 stars)
Arts reporter Bill Fenner is asked to go to Paris by his publisher to get information from a French intellectual, who had been a member of the French underground during WWII. On his flight to Paris is a Russian agent, bringing a package to a contact in Paris. By chance, the agent suffers a heart attack at the Custom's check-in and in the ensuing confusion Fenner ends up with the Russians jacket and when he searches through to try and identify the owner, discovers a stash of cash hidden within.
Fenner involves the US Embassy and ends up part of a group trying to discover a plot to possibly assassinate DeGaulle. The story is a fascinating spy thriller that moves from Paris to Venice where there will be an exciting finale. Jenner will travel by rail with another American, Claire Langley, accompanied by various Allied intelligence people and also those of the enemy. They are to meet Fenner's ex-wife in Venice, a Communist sympathizer who wants to return to the US and is willing to give up mysterious, deadly Russian agent Kalganov, to do so.
That's enough plot for you. Suffice it to say that it's at times quite confusing. Are they being followed, who is on their side? I found the 1st half a bit slower, kind of nebulous and wordy at times but still, the characters get very nicely developed over the course of the first half. The focus is on Fenner, but at times the story moves to other characters, even the 'bad guys', to provide their perspective on various events and incidents. There is murder and the constant threat of it. And once the story moves to Venice, the pace picks up and the tension is ratcheted up so well that it left me quite breathless at times. MacInnes has a way with words and with story - telling that grabs your interest an moves you into the story. You can picture the scene, feel you are part of the action, understand the characters.
It was an excellent spy novel and just a great story. I definitely plan to explore MacInnes's work further. (4.5 stars)
December 22, 2014
Another well written book about how well the enemies of freedom skillfully work at undermining the peoples' trust in the American government and principles which we have historically held to among our own people and the world. They do not care for truth, they do not care for freedom, and they hold no regard at all for the lives of anyone except themselves.
Even though this was written in the early 1960s, I feel the ideas about manipulating public opinion through carefully manufactured "evidence" and press releases by "respected" individuals still are valid and still being carried out. Even though the Soviet Union is no longer, Communism is still alive around the globe, and it is still a danger to the principles we hold sacred & which are (supposed to be) guaranteed through the Constitution (& which wouldn't be negated or tossed out the window today if "We the People" understood the Constitution & held our elected officials accountable (from BOTH parties) for not honoring their Oath of Office...but all that is a deeper subject for a different place & time.)
I just really enjoy MacInnes' books, and have been reminded that it takes vigilance, knowledge & courage to retain our freedoms.
Even though this was written in the early 1960s, I feel the ideas about manipulating public opinion through carefully manufactured "evidence" and press releases by "respected" individuals still are valid and still being carried out. Even though the Soviet Union is no longer, Communism is still alive around the globe, and it is still a danger to the principles we hold sacred & which are (supposed to be) guaranteed through the Constitution (& which wouldn't be negated or tossed out the window today if "We the People" understood the Constitution & held our elected officials accountable (from BOTH parties) for not honoring their Oath of Office...but all that is a deeper subject for a different place & time.)
I just really enjoy MacInnes' books, and have been reminded that it takes vigilance, knowledge & courage to retain our freedoms.
October 6, 2021
I wrote a whole review for this and Goodreads ate it and I’m so mad. It was a brilliant review too. (You will never see it so you can’t prove that isn’t so.)
Anyway, a list of why I love Helen MacInnes and this book specifically and I won’t even try to explain them because I tried that before and look where it got me. no review in sight, that’s where it got me.:
-Bill Fenner. If you’re cynical for no reason, it’s annoying. If you’re cynical because turns out your wife was a Communist spy who married you as an assignment, well, I would pretty much die for you. When you are also intelligent, quick to understand and give it when people merit your respect, and have a deep but quiet streak of patriotism, you’re just a wonderful protagonist and I’m going to enjoy every minute spent reading about you.
-All the characters. Even one as minor as Professor Vagiroud is so vivid to me. Carlson doesn’t have too many scenes, but he lives and breathes and jokes and worries, for me. Even someone like Chris Holland; you’re told he’s like this - then you meet him and he isn’t, and you find out why - then you get to know him and by the end you see how he WOULD be like that under different circumstances. A small thing, really, but not to me. That’s a well-drawn character, drawn mainly in the thin, thin spaces around a plot that leaves little time for character development.
-Claire. I love her.
-Recurring characters in MacInnes’s books (like Henry Van Cortlandt, my eternal favorite) make me so happy. I first met Rosie in The Double Image , but he’s in this one a lot more.
-She’s such a good WRITER, though. When Fenner first arrives, he observes how Venice is a city of contrast. A brief paragraph describing Venice in contrasting terms closes out with: “Stone floated on water.”
-Tense (so tense), believable spy novels, not unbelievably idealistic, but that manage to leave you with a smidge of optimism. And gratitude.
-Characters taking time here and there to discuss what it all /means/. Art is long, as Fenner concludes regarding the seven (out of many, many more) surviving plays of Sophocles, so long as the barbarians don’t get to it - and hence the present necessity.
Anyway, a list of why I love Helen MacInnes and this book specifically and I won’t even try to explain them because I tried that before and look where it got me. no review in sight, that’s where it got me.:
-Bill Fenner. If you’re cynical for no reason, it’s annoying. If you’re cynical because turns out your wife was a Communist spy who married you as an assignment, well, I would pretty much die for you. When you are also intelligent, quick to understand and give it when people merit your respect, and have a deep but quiet streak of patriotism, you’re just a wonderful protagonist and I’m going to enjoy every minute spent reading about you.
-All the characters. Even one as minor as Professor Vagiroud is so vivid to me. Carlson doesn’t have too many scenes, but he lives and breathes and jokes and worries, for me. Even someone like Chris Holland; you’re told he’s like this - then you meet him and he isn’t, and you find out why - then you get to know him and by the end you see how he WOULD be like that under different circumstances. A small thing, really, but not to me. That’s a well-drawn character, drawn mainly in the thin, thin spaces around a plot that leaves little time for character development.
-Claire. I love her.
-Recurring characters in MacInnes’s books (like Henry Van Cortlandt, my eternal favorite) make me so happy. I first met Rosie in The Double Image , but he’s in this one a lot more.
-She’s such a good WRITER, though. When Fenner first arrives, he observes how Venice is a city of contrast. A brief paragraph describing Venice in contrasting terms closes out with: “Stone floated on water.”
-Tense (so tense), believable spy novels, not unbelievably idealistic, but that manage to leave you with a smidge of optimism. And gratitude.
-Characters taking time here and there to discuss what it all /means/. Art is long, as Fenner concludes regarding the seven (out of many, many more) surviving plays of Sophocles, so long as the barbarians don’t get to it - and hence the present necessity.
August 28, 2021
Not one but two fem fatales but who to trust ? Through an international assassination attempt in Paris and you have a first rate thriller.
Read
December 3, 2015This is a re-read from high school. Our Mom read all of MacInnes and so did I. So sexist and so long... but modern for the time. The female spy was strong until she fell in love.
Though the sentence structure is bulky, it is familiar and comfortable at the same time. I was surprised at the random shift in POV throughout, and also surprised that it worked as well as it did. It was very interesting to read this again. Made me miss my Mom and all the books she read and shared.
Though the sentence structure is bulky, it is familiar and comfortable at the same time. I was surprised at the random shift in POV throughout, and also surprised that it worked as well as it did. It was very interesting to read this again. Made me miss my Mom and all the books she read and shared.
March 30, 2018
This is my first Helen MacInnes book and I enjoyed the plot, setting descriptions, and characters. Lots of intrigue and having lived through the "Cold War" period in the 60's, I found the story very plausible. The villain, Kalgarov, was a master of disguise, ruthless and frightening in his determination for disruption in the world to promote his ideology and ambition. The way our hero gets involved in the plot was clever and MacInnes' portrays him as curious, intelligent, brave, vulnerable, and humane. The book could have been a bit shorter, but the author's setting for the story lended itself to some detailed descriptions which brings the reader into the scenes. I will be reading her other books and will probably start with "Above Suspicion" or "The Salzburg Connection."
July 24, 2014
I don't think it is dated. It is a book about a different time in history. A historical spy novel and a well-done one at that. I got into it and couldn't stop. It is brilliantly plotted, human, and makes one wish for a time when we were still the good guys.
September 5, 2010
This makes an amazing starting place for the shamefully overlooked novels of a terrific writer.
November 16, 2010
Another solid spy thriller from Helen MacInnes. I always feel like she should be more known today, since her books hold up better than you'd perhaps expect.
January 4, 2019
I liked the set-up and the European atmosphere (Paris, Venice) more than the movie-ish developments in the book’s latter third, when not one but two women are put into peril because - well, because they just HAVE to be, given the requirements of the genre blah blah blah. Since both these women are depicted throughout as intelligent and capable, I had a hard time buying these late-inning lapses of judgement.
I related well to the male protagonist, Bill Fenner, a New York drama critic who seems to accidentally find himself in the middle of convoluted intrigues on a European research vacation for a book he’s contemplating. But, as we discover, he is actually connected to what is going on long before he disembarks from his plane at Orly.
As is common with espionage novels, there are a lot of networked characters with complex allegiances: you might want to keep a list.
I related well to the male protagonist, Bill Fenner, a New York drama critic who seems to accidentally find himself in the middle of convoluted intrigues on a European research vacation for a book he’s contemplating. But, as we discover, he is actually connected to what is going on long before he disembarks from his plane at Orly.
As is common with espionage novels, there are a lot of networked characters with complex allegiances: you might want to keep a list.
February 26, 2012
There is no synopsis online for this book…it was published in 1963. I’ve also owned it for a while (but not since 1963). I think I picked it up at a local library about 5 years ago. It was on the sidewalk in a box full of books marked FREE. What can I say?...I’m a sucker for free books.
Basically this is a government espionage story set in during the Cold War with a little romance thrown in.
It took me a couple of chapters to get into it. However, once I got into it, I read it in three days. Okay, it probably helped that for those three days I was primarily in bed sick with strep and some other virus. But, really, most of the time I felt too crummy to even ready.
While I enjoyed the story, the book is going into the “To Pass On” pile instead of returning to the bookshelf. It’s not one I would see myself re-reading in the future.
Basically this is a government espionage story set in during the Cold War with a little romance thrown in.
It took me a couple of chapters to get into it. However, once I got into it, I read it in three days. Okay, it probably helped that for those three days I was primarily in bed sick with strep and some other virus. But, really, most of the time I felt too crummy to even ready.
While I enjoyed the story, the book is going into the “To Pass On” pile instead of returning to the bookshelf. It’s not one I would see myself re-reading in the future.
October 1, 2025
Helen MacInness wrote a number of espionage novels during her career. The enemy changed according to the times. During the Cold War the Communists are clearly the bad guys and anyone who listens to them are dupes. Her books from the 1940s had the Nazis as the villains and her books from the 1970s used terrorists.
I have held onto my paperback copies of a lot of her books and re-read them periodically, because the plot and the action hold my attention even when I'm cringing at the McCarthyite tone about communists.
The Venetian Affair, written in 1963, features an American journalist who stumbles into a plot while traveling to Paris. He travels to Venice with a young woman to help the "good guys" (CIA, British Intelligence, Surete) foil the evil communists. I hadn't remembered much of the story, but did remember the train scene.
I have held onto my paperback copies of a lot of her books and re-read them periodically, because the plot and the action hold my attention even when I'm cringing at the McCarthyite tone about communists.
The Venetian Affair, written in 1963, features an American journalist who stumbles into a plot while traveling to Paris. He travels to Venice with a young woman to help the "good guys" (CIA, British Intelligence, Surete) foil the evil communists. I hadn't remembered much of the story, but did remember the train scene.
March 31, 2017
I struggled to read this book as it was written in the 1960s by an author who rambles on and give too many details for me to enjoy. The book did not grab me to keep reading.
Story about a journalist who gets involved with Cold War spying after losing his raincoat or maybe he really is a spy. Set in Venice Italy.
Would not recommend this book to my friends.
Story about a journalist who gets involved with Cold War spying after losing his raincoat or maybe he really is a spy. Set in Venice Italy.
Would not recommend this book to my friends.
October 9, 2018
I have read this author before and enjoy her books. In this one, a freelance journalist is traveling on a business/vacation trip and inadvertently gets the wrong raincoat at security. What follows is a suspenseful story of espionage, communism and international affairs. The book takes place during the Cold War era and mostly in Venice. A great read!
April 16, 2018
This was a very enjoyable read...well, reread, as I first read it in the 70s. It retains its intrigue and the plot moves quickly. Both Fenner and Langley are good and mostly believable characters.
May 14, 2019
This was a decent spy thriller but is dated to the Soviet era so it was just strange to me. The threat was real but distant if that makes sense. Good characterization. Lots of cat and mouse intrigue. I wonder if the world of spying is really like this?
June 28, 2013
You will find this one somewhat dated, but it was an excellent thriller/mystery. Helen MacInnes was an author who could really keep the suspense going, without vicarious violence.
May 7, 2016
Took me a while to get into then I was hooked.
July 13, 2018
I liked the characters in this book. The background was well detailed, and it drew me in immediately. Would like to read more of her books.
January 10, 2023
The Venetian Affair (Paperback) by Helen MacInnes
The time is the summer of 1961 - three months after the Berlin wall came up. It's the height of the Cold War.
Bill Fenner, a drama reporter for the New York Chronicle is sent to Paris by his boss, Walt Penneyman, to do a piece on French theater. As he arrives at the Orly airport, he inadvertently picks up the coat of a Russian spy who was carrying ten $10,000 bills sealed in an inside pocket.
Fenner reports the findings of the $100,000 he found to NATO and the CIA and he's recruited to go to Venice to try to quell a Communist attempt on the French President, Charles De Gaulle's life. He will be paired with Claire Connor - who lost her husband to a bomb attack by the infamous Kalganot, aka Robert Wahl.
Aided by Neil Carlson and Frank Rosenfeld (Rosie), Fenner uses his contacts, Professor Vaugiroud, and Sandra Fane, Fenner's 35 y/o ex-wife, and a Russian asset. Fenner must learn to play a deadly game with the highest stakes, against communist opponents plotting to undermine the balance of Cold War Europe.
The book is narrated from the third person point of view - but poorly. The writer changes the point of view often, mostly without any warning to the reader. There are many secondary characters that distract from the plot. Otherwise, the plot is easy to follow and the book reads quickly and easily.
I enjoyed the book.
The time is the summer of 1961 - three months after the Berlin wall came up. It's the height of the Cold War.
Bill Fenner, a drama reporter for the New York Chronicle is sent to Paris by his boss, Walt Penneyman, to do a piece on French theater. As he arrives at the Orly airport, he inadvertently picks up the coat of a Russian spy who was carrying ten $10,000 bills sealed in an inside pocket.
Fenner reports the findings of the $100,000 he found to NATO and the CIA and he's recruited to go to Venice to try to quell a Communist attempt on the French President, Charles De Gaulle's life. He will be paired with Claire Connor - who lost her husband to a bomb attack by the infamous Kalganot, aka Robert Wahl.
Aided by Neil Carlson and Frank Rosenfeld (Rosie), Fenner uses his contacts, Professor Vaugiroud, and Sandra Fane, Fenner's 35 y/o ex-wife, and a Russian asset. Fenner must learn to play a deadly game with the highest stakes, against communist opponents plotting to undermine the balance of Cold War Europe.
The book is narrated from the third person point of view - but poorly. The writer changes the point of view often, mostly without any warning to the reader. There are many secondary characters that distract from the plot. Otherwise, the plot is easy to follow and the book reads quickly and easily.
I enjoyed the book.
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