NEITHER FIVE NOR THREE

This is the most important book Helen MacInnes has done- and in suspense equals her first success, Above Suspicion. Whether her public will accept the transference of that type of story to the American scene with equal enthusiasm remains to be seen. I found the book absorbing and challenging from first page to last, as the devious methods of Communist penetration into the fields of public relations are revealed, and the terrifying network of Communist affiliation is convincingly recorded. Rona Metford is engaged to Scott Ettley, a journalist whose loyalties are torn between his mounting commitment to ""the party"" -- and his yearning for a normal course of love and marriage. Into this situation comes Paul Haydn, just returned to New York from a very hush-hush assignment in Europe and finding that his love for Rona, which he thought was a thing of the past, is still very much alive. The checkered course of love is traced against the background of gradually unfolding ramifications of the violence and falsity of Communist activities in the heart of the world they think they know. Helen MacInnes has done some of her best writing in this her best book. It deserves serious consideration; it is sure to get popular recognition.