THE SLENDER THREAD

A nightmare section in the life of Gordon Monroe, a writer in seclusion, brings him into the orbit of a small boy whom he calls Danny, and abrades his isolation into a human agonizing. For, in trying to care for the youngster, he runs into the prying of his small Vermont hideout, becomes more deeply involved by running away, and in implicating friends, faces a kidnaping charge and gets centered in a real kidnaping. The shattering of his self-imposed impersonality by his concern for the boy, his evasion of those who would recapture ""Danny"", his unsuspected -- if useless -- courage in confronting ""Danny's"" brutal jailers, and his final capitulation to protection by the police -- face him with a final problem when ""Danny"" is returned to his lawful parents. This catches a static man in a position where barriers go down before helplessness, trust and a child's faith and, in scoring his armor, release his humanity. Suspense and susceptibility.