THE NUMBERED ACCOUNT

This is number three in the femininely styled cloak-and-dagger yarns involving Julia Probyn, British, beautiful, and forthrightly determined to achieve her goals. Through her cousin Colin she becomes again a key factor in solving a strange case --the story set this time in Switzerland. A fortune must be claimed through a Swiss bank and a ""numbered account"" -- and Julia and Colin are just too late. It is a case of more being involved than the fortune. The British Intelligence is putting their best men on the case for there are important papers and secret blueprints which must not fall into enemy hands. One sometimes feels that the Alphonse-Gaston punctilios provide unnecessary loss of time and momentum, and that Julia, heedless and foolhardy as she sometimes seems, is a better secret agent than the professionals. This ties in with The Portuguese Escape (1958) and The Lighthearted Quest (1956)- both Macmillan books- and the proportion of adventure and romance is about as before. Julia loses her man this time- a new angle- so the hunt must still go on. The effortless acquisition of delightful bits of travel lore is again a factor which will help to hold her established audience. Actually, this reader feels that she has played Julia a bit thin.