"Above Suspicion" is another of those ingenious spy stories which are by-products of the war. The formula, though familiar, seems to have unlimited possibilities, and Miss MacInnes has turned out a first novel which moves lightly and swiftly. The impact of nazism on the easy-going world of liberalism has to some extent jarred literary production out of its self-conscious introspection to forms that are more external. It is paradoxical that it should take a war to restore a sense of the ordinary, everyday lives of men and women. But the present war does seem to have produced this effect….

The author obviously has a very definite attitude toward the régime in Germany, but her reactions remain external, never marring the sparkling surface of the narrative. So too her characters, German and English alike, are simplified black and white portraits, types that never become individuals. Only Frances Myles...