Message From Málaga
by Helen MacInnes
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"That delay in the delivery of the message from Málaga could have been absolutely disastrous. As it was, there had been irreparable loss: an agent dead." Under the Mediterranean sun, a drama begins in a cafe in Málaga. For Ian Ferrier, an employee of the United States Space Agency on holiday to visit his old friend Jeff Reid, it means the startling discovery that Reid is not just a wine exporter, but rather engaged in smuggling communist defectors to the West. Events take a turn for the show more worse when Ferrier, a stranger to the deadly world of espionage, must take sole charge of a high-ranking KGB agent. Alone in an frighteningly alien landscape, he can afford no mistakes when choosing whom to trust... show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
A fairly ordinary upright fellow gets caught in nasty covert situation, except there's no silly mistaken identity or misplaced message. The latter half of chapter 8 is a virulent anti-communist activist rant base on the assumption that there was an effective communist infiltration of the 60s campus activists who were going to spread the corruption making inevitable the suppression of US values. Not quite how it worked out, now was it? I was, like, there and Macinnes wasn't.
Excellent espionage theme with a well-developed plot and engaging character development. While the primary murder was not unexpected, the path to coping with the fallout seemed unnecessarily bogged down at times and side-tracked. The rant against communism on University campuses was a dated retrospective which was less based in actual fact and detracted from moving the story forward. Overall, a highly recommended novel if you enjoy the vintage adventures of the 1960's and 70's.
A spy novel set in Spain.
Una súbita muerte en la soleada España
Aug 19, 2020Spanish
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Publisher's Weekly Bestsellers - Part II - 1940 - 1979
355 works; 5 members
Author Information
39+ Works 7,995 Members
Helen MacInnes was born in Glasgow, Scotland on October 7, 1907. In 1928, she received a degree in French and German from the University of Glasgow in Scotland. She later studied at University College in London and worked as a librarian. She got married in 1932, moved to New York in 1937, and became an American citizen in 1952. In 1939, she began show more writing suspense novels and won the Columbia Prize for Literature in 1966. Many of her novels were adapted into movies including Above Suspicion, Assignment in Brittany, The Venetian Affair, and The Salzburg Connection. She died from the effects of a stroke on September 30, 1985 at the age of 77. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Belongs to Publisher Series
Heyne Allgemeine Reihe (5319)
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Message From Málaga
- Original title
- Message From Málaga
- Original publication date
- 1971
- People/Characters
- Ian Ferrier; Jeff Reid
- Important places*
- Málaga, Andalusië, Spanje; Andalusië, Spanje
- Dedication
- To my friend Julian
a man who has never given up the ship
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 401
- Popularity
- 77,498
- Reviews
- 5
- Rating
- (3.45)
- Languages
- 5 — Dutch, English, German, Norwegian (Bokmål), Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 23
- ASINs
- 16
