The MacInnes political antennae, always tuned in to the latest international headlines, have proved more reliable than ever.

At the center of ["The Snare of the Hunter"] is writer Jaromir Kusak, a Nobel prize nominee in voluntary exile from Czechoslovakia. An amateurish but valiant Anglo-American quartet resolves to effect the reunion of Kusak with his daughter Irina—without leading the Secret Police (in hot but secretive pursuit) to the writer's Swiss hideway.

Any serious contemplation or extended examination of the mainsprings of this story's narrative would reveal gaping chasms in logic and raise foolish but fundamental questions for which Miss MacInnes furnishes no answers.

Of course, there'd be no story if logic were triumphant and, happily, the pace and rich texture of the MacInnes style leave few moments for question-raising contemplation.

Like its predecessors, "The Snare of the Hunter" is part travelogue. Without even setting off for an...