Academe: More notable U.S. espionage novels.

On the Academe blog Martin Kich (Wright State University) continues his series on "Fifty Notable American Espionage Novels" with the following:

Peter Lorre in
The Mysterious Mr. Moto (1938)

• Helen MacInnes, Assignment in Brittany (1942)

• Colin MacKinnon, Finding Hoseyn (1987)

• Joe Maggio, The Company Man (1972)


• John P. Marquand, Stopover Tokyo
(1957; Mr. Moto takes on the communists)

• Wilson McCarthy, The Detail (1973) 

• Charles McCarry, The Miernick Dossier (1973)

Here's a rundown of Kich's earlier choices.

MacInnes's Venetian Affair (1967).

Robert Vaughn (still playing Napoleon Solo on Man from U.N.C.L.E. at the time) tries to figure out why a US diplomat detonated a bomb at a peace conference in this adaptation of Helen MacInnes's spy novel (Kirkus review here). The film costars Boris Karloff, Elke Sommer, and Felicia Farr.

Helen MacInnes this week on BBC Radio 7.

Helen MacInnes's Above Suspicion (1941), in which a young couple finds themselves embroiled in espionage on the eve of WWII, is featured this week on BBC Radio 7, along with Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in At Bertram's Hotel. Go here for the schedule or to listen.

About the photo: Joan Crawford and Fred MacMurray in Above Suspicion (1943)