B ill Matthison is a typical MacInnes hero. A good-looking, intelligent American attorney in his early thirties, he is kind, gentle and lonely. He is ready for adventure, and he is ready to fall in love. On a seemingly ordinary legal assignment, he becomes involved with a murder victim's widow and a glamorous intelligence agent. He is mistaken for an intelligence agent himself, but with the help of genuine intelligence agents, his own quick-wittedness, and reserves of strength he did not know he possessed, he is able to protect his country, and win the woman he has grown to love. She is the attractive, wealthy, and resourceful Lynn Conway.

The Salzburg Connection contains interesting minor characters too. Elissa Lang, a Communist agent, is truly attracted to Matthison. Richard Bryant is an excellent amateur operative whose luck runs out on him. His wife, Anna Bryant, is a sympathetic victim...