TO DIE ELSEWHERE

Here (Marseilles), there (Paris, Athens) among intercontinental connections from the Family to assorted Intelligence services to a journalist when Edouard Berx, an agent, tries to get a line on another one, Garianian, who's disappeared with some high-asking-price papers concerning the Kennedy assassination. Actually Garianian is said to have fallen in love with the ""Cobra,"" not as fatale a femme as her name; she's an ingenuous girl of twenty. Both want sanctuary together while Berx is left at the end with the grey disillusion of his own existence ""in a single huge cemetery which kept growing."" Wilden's first novel depends perhaps too much on its quick changes for either substance or originality but it's exceedingly well written and affords an agreeably smart evening elsewhere.