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THE ROSECREST CELL by Vera Caspary

THE ROSECREST CELL

By

Pub Date: Sept. 1st, 1967
Publisher: Putnam

The story here rather drags its feet--surprisingly since this has always been Vera Caspary's most negotiable asset--and what there is of it deals with a small Communist cell in a small Connecticut town during the late '30's and into World War II. Paul Falcon moves there, from Hollywood, joins the ""literary"" gatherings of some committed card carriers: a radical writer and his wife, a librarian, a dentist, etc. He also falls in love with Wendy Taylor, one of them, even though her father is a stereo-archetype of reaction. However, with the war Paul becomes disaffected and politics makes estranged bedfellows--he leaves Wendy behind... The reader too loses interest, perhaps because the Hollywood Ten-types and issues (Browder, the Daily Worker, the ""pinkos"") all seem somewhat washed out and washed up today.