EMERGENCY IN THE PYRENEES

Julia Probyn, the self-appointed, level-headed amateur detective in several of Ann Bridge's earlier novels (combined in the 1962 trilogy reissue- Julia Involved) is here safely anchored by marriage and prospective maternity. But her husband, Philip, decides that she should spend the next months in his old farmhouse in the Pyrenees. Here, instead of just gestating, she gets involved with Luzia Ericeira, a lovely Portuguese, and her former pupil, and also Colin, met in the earlier books. There is the expected salubrious blend of espionage and counterespionage, adequately plotted, adamantly feminine.