The Double Image by Helen MacInnes #20BOS26-8 and Paris in July

April in Paris, and a sprinkle of rain, a sudden whip of cool breeze, a greying sky to end the bright promise of the evening. John Craig decided that his saunter along Boulevard Sant-Germain might come to a quick end any moment now, and began looking in earnest for a place of retreat.

John is in Paris primarily to see his sister, then intends to do research for a book in Italy, Greece, and Turkey. His plans are interrupted when he recognizes a worried-looking man, Professor Sussman, who taught him at Columbia. Sussman remembers him and they go for a drink. Sussman is agitated: he is an Auschwitz survivor and just saw a former Nazi, SS Colonel Heinrich Berg, he thought had died in 1945. John is watching an attractive young woman, several tables away, having an upsetting conversation with her boyfriend, and does not take Sussman as seriously as he should, although John offers to walk him back to his hotel. “Say yes!” I begged, but no one listened. Instead, Sussman goes off alone and John insists that the pretty girl, now alone and tearful (later, we learn her name is Veronica), allow him to drop her off in a taxi.

Of course, the next day the police come to John’s hotel to tell him that Sussman is dead. They say it was suicide but John suspects it was murder. Through his brother-in-law, who has just left the US Embassy in Moscow, he is connected to several men who are interested in the story about the alleged Nazi. There is a lot of Cold War espionage going on and, to John’s concern, his new acquaintance, Veronica, seems to be caught up in it. Because he is one of the few people who can identify Berg, John is both in danger yet valuable to those trying to prevent the Russians from a secret plot being carefully planned in Mykonos.

Helen MacInnes was a bestselling author of spy thrillers, often involving ordinary people caught up unexpectedly in espionage. This book started out well but then the pace was very slow – too much sneaking around in Paris and speculating about double agents, not enough action. The scenes with Colonel Berg were dramatic but otherwise this was not one of MacInnes’ best. While Still We Live and Above Suspicion were my favorites, as I recall. MacInnes likely got some of her espionage ideas from her husband, Gilbert Highet, a British intelligence officer during WWII, who later was a distinguished professor of classics at Columbia. I don’t know if my grandfather, in the music department, ever met him but once I read about a lunch talk Helen gave to faculty wives that I hope my grandmother attended. If you’d like to hear her delightful Scottish voice, here is an interview from 1964.

Title: The Double Image
Author: Helen MacInnes
Publication: Titan Books, paperback, originally published in 1966
Genre: Suspense
Source: Personal copy

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• 20 Books of Summer 2026

• Cloak and Dagger Challenge 2026

• Paris in July 2026