Cloak of Darkness

Robert Renwick #3

by Helen MacInnes

Bob Renwick, founder of the counter-terrorist agency, Interintell, uncovers a multinational munitions combine running terrorist training camps and discovers that he is number three on their Minus List

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

307 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

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

[Ron Wroblewski · Rating 5 out of 5]

very well written. one of her best.

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite MacInnes novels so far, with an international anti-terrorism organisation, some truly nasty villains, and all the European travel detail I really read these for.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even thought her books were written long ago they are actually still very good reads.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ex-CIA employee is handed a list of names in a London pub. The list is a list of assassination targets. And his name is on it. Full of suspense.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helen MacInnes wrote action/adventure/espionage stories throughout her life, mostly keeping them contemporary with the times. Cloak of Darkness was written in the early 1980s. The heroes are intelligence agents from the U.S. and Western Europe, who work for a (fictional) anti-terrorist group called Interintell. The bad guys are illegal weapons traffickers supplying terrorists, possibly with the support of the KGB.

Not one of her best, but not one of the worst either. The story holds up well, considering how dated some of it appears.

There are characters who have appeared in previous books, but it isn't necessary to have read those in order to understand and appreciate this one. However, this book does contain spoilers for
The Hidden Target and Prelude to Terror

[Lesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellant book.

[Tammy Fotinos · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good solid read. It held my attention, but didn't blow my socks off. I will be back to read more of her books for sure though. I really liked the characters.

[girl writing · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cloak and dagger international espionage tale from one of the masters of the genre. Takes places in the 80s before the technology of today with the good guys relying on instinct and each other.

[Jeff Dickison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Erik (the terrorist from "The Hidden Target") has escaped. Robert Renwick and Claudel go after him. Along the way they also come in contact with illegal arms dealers, murderers and traitors. Good action sequences highlight this tale. Well done and exciting, highly recommended.

[Olivermagnus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can remember reading novels by Helen MacInnes as my very first introduction to spy thrillers, still one of my favorite genres. In Cloak of Darkness we again catch up with Robert Renwick, hero of Prelude to Terror and Hidden Target. He's married to Nina O'Connell and still working for Interintell, an organization supported by some of the NATO governments. He's contacted by an old acquaintance on his secure telephone number who reveals that Renwick's name is on a hit list that was developed by the owner of an international munitions firm. He must try to protect Nina, and at the same time, stop whatever global destruction the munitions executive has planned.

This book was written in 1982 and has a nostalgic feel for an espionage thriller. While many of the concerns she wrote about were unrealized at the time, there are a remarkable number that have actually happened. MacInnes fills her narrative with everything you need in a spy thriller, including double agents, triple agents, and innocent bystanders, all set in the famous capitals of Europe and Africa. Thirty five years later, I find her novels are still very readable. Not many women have made their mark as espionage storytellers, but Helen MacInnes is one one of my favorite authors of the international intrigue genre.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert Fenwick is back, this time in possession of the Minus List, a terrorist's list of 9 agents to be assassinated. His own name is on the list. The list contains proof that there is a leak in Intertell.
But the thing Fenwick is more worried about is the Plus List - a lengthy list of people in high levels of government and business who have taken bribes from illegal arms dealers who supply guns to terrorists and the communists. These men can do almost untold damage if the wrong people pull their strings.
So Renwick and company are off on a lethal game of cat and mouse. From Djibouti to New York, Amsterdam, France, and Switzerland, the agents of Intertell race to find the Plus List, before their enemies do.
I love the spycraft in these books, as dated as it is. I do not like the casual sexism and racism, but am learning to just roll my eyes and move on.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite, but still a good decent read. I like the tension between the married man who wants to divulge secrets to his observant wife (but can't), and the need to protect by not saying much at all. Glad that McInnes often writes (convincingly) about happily married couples. For some reason, other than some specific scenes (like the uncovering of spies-within-spies in Brimmer's office), I didn't connect with this book as much as with others, perhaps because the Death List was listed so often. Favorite side character: Christopher the British ex-spy and gardening expert, happily pottering away in retirement.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book; it was a well written and well told story. It was a page turner for me, I wanted to know how things unfolded. But I didn't really connect with the characters; they didn't stay in my head.

[O Babs · Rating 3 out of 5]

MacInnes in good form, and this is one of her novels featuring Robert Renwick.

Still wish that Titan had done a better job of digitizing the text. Reading experience diminished by crazy misspellings and stray, meaningless punctuation. Yet another case of missing the copy editing process.

[patricia cleary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deceit in high and highly unlikely places

I have been a fan of Helen MacInnes for many years. I loved reading her books over again. Somehow I had missed this one and I believe this may have been her very best!

[Tommyb]

Fiction,spy fiction

[Lisa Robertson]

One of my favoriate genres...

[Janette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nail-biter!

[Marie Bouteille · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thrilling race against time accross Djibouti, the US, France and Switzerland

[Jack Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

First Read

My first Mac book was a fresh enjoyable read. Great details, excellent descriptions of people and places I have visited.
Very factual, well written.
JM

[Kendra Swafford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had a good story line and kept me interested!

[Gigi · Rating 3 out of 5]

interpol adjacent agent espionage thriller who loves his wife so much

[Paul Cornelius · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story of international arms smuggling abetted by Soviet and anarchist terrorists fits in squarely as a sequel to the previous Robert Renwick novel, The Hidden Target. Back again is anarchist Erik, after a stint training among Somali terrorists, and so are plenty of Renwick's pals and his wife, the irritatingly stupid, Nina. Fortunately, Nina is sent off for protection at a museum this time, although she almost manages to get in trouble there, too. Otherwise, it's Bob Renwick running around Helen MacInnes's favorite settings, Switzerland, France, and New York. There is also a sizable detour to Djibouti during the first half of the book. It's worth mentioning, because MacInnes is in her old form, there, generating a descriptive atmosphere of the heat and humidity in the strategic Red Sea port.

And that brings to mind something. MacInnes's novels now are noticeably different from her earlier efforts. Not better. But not worse either. Just different. She has brought much more urgency and pace to her stories. The trade off, however, is that those lengthy and enjoyable atmospheric passages have become fewer and fewer. Sometimes, I feel that MacInnes is taking readers on a guided tour of Euro hotspots, and the details of life among the average person she was so good at with those wartime novels and immediate postwar novels are no more. Still, it's an intriguing spy story, the next to the last book that she would write. Take note, she died in 1985, and Cloak was published in 1982--her very last book came out in 1984. That's next on my reading list. So far, it looks like MacInnes was just as strong of a writer at the end as she was at the beginning of her career.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book does a great job of being an early-80s mass-market spy thriller and I enjoyed it knowing it would be unironically cheesy. It's kind of a case study in how not to write fiction these days -- there is zero arc for the main character and the book's point of view shifts so suddenly and inconsistently it's like pre-schooler architected the scenes. But MacInnes nails pacing and there are abundant, spy details, like cool technology and conspiracy, to keep up the intrigue. Reading 40+ years after publication, I thoroughly enjoyed the analogue spy craft and the fact that a story about tracking down paper could use up hundreds of pages. MacInnes does a nice job with the international scenery, too, and her pre-internet-era readers would have been justified in feeling like they were in London/Washington/Djibouti/Switzerland, although the Djibouti descriptions do dwell on fabric rather excessively.

It's highly unfortunate that the female characters in the book are damsels in distress 90% of the time. They're generally clever and ambitious, but I was hoping for a little more triumph than they got. I read this as a stand-alone and it looks like the MC's wife, Nina, gets more development in the preceding book, but that doesn't redeem her unidimensional depiction in this one.

[Joyce Hertzoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hadn’t read any of the authors espionage thrillers for many years, although they used to be favorites of mine. It was like the proverbial old shoe, fitting me and my current mood. I would have rated this higher, just for the way she creates suspense, but it’s dated in so many ways, mainly because it’s set in the late 1970’s. Still, I enjoyed reading about Robert Renwick again and seeing what he was up to this time. When he’s told his name is on the Minus List, he travels to New York. For Claudel, the story starts in Djibouti. After Robert stows his young wife away in a safe place in Virginia, he and Claudel meet up in the Swiss and French alps in pursuit of a previous foe and a new one.

[Hugh Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it. Pleasant, easy to follow, good characters and settings. Quite revealing, though, to read about anti-terrorism in 1982!

I particularly liked the tender love of the Renwicks and how devoted they were to each other.

The villains were well painted and clever. The leading characters applying good detective investigatory skills.

The occasional Britishisms were delightful as was the spelling.

I will definitely read more of her books.

[ALEXANDER MOLNAR Jr · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the better books, about espionage, terrorism from a lady who wrote a large number of spy thrillers, from Above Suspision, before WW II, to Assignment Brittany, the Snare and the Hunter, etc almost all her books are great reads... she kept up with the times, and switched from Nazis, to Russian KGB, to East German spies, to terrorism in the 1980s. Love her books....

[Erik Tanouye · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got this from a sale table on the ground floor of Chapters bookstore in Dublin in May 2018.

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spy craft may be a bit dated but a well written exciting story. Good read

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my favorite of the three Renwick novels. Lots of tense moments, surprising betrayals, and a desperate rush to stay one step ahead of the enemy. Cold War espionage done right.