Decision at Delphi in Retro Reads

Oct 13, 2020 Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: suspense, spy-vs-spy, greece

3.33 stars. Helen MacInnes is a great weaver of spy stories set during the aftermath of WWII and the Cold War era. In this 1960 novel, set in Greece, American architect/artist Ken Strang gets involved in some plotting by nihilists and communists to cause civil disturbances in Greece and the surrounding countries. Ken's new love interest gets involved as well, causing him huge consternation.

It got a little too long-winded for me, although it kept me interested enough to read it within 2-3 days (w ...more

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Nov 06, 2020 Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: vintage-retro-romance, espionage-action-suspense-thriller

I didn't love this book as much as I did when I was younger (when it was my favourite MacInnes title)

This probably isn't this book's fault,

I worked the New Zealand elections which left me exhausted. (but proud to have been part of the process)

I have changed as a reader & now rarely enjoy longer books.

& this one was a slow starter with artist Kenneth Strang taking a leisurely boat trip from the States to Greece to execute a commission for a a magazine. Not only is the magazine paying for an artis ...more

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Oct 19, 2020 Barb in Maryland rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: romance, mystery-thriller-goodies

This was the very first book by MacInnes that I read--way back in 1962 or '63. I loved it and became a fan, but re-read it only once or twice. So, when it came time to read it with the Retro Reads group it was like reading it for the first time: I couldn't remember a thing about the plot, the characters. Nada.

I enjoyed my reintroduction. MacInnes was a master at placing the story in the current moment--which, in this case, was Greece in the late 1950s. WWII had ended barely 15 years earlier and ...more

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Oct 22, 2020 Infosifter rated it really liked it

It's 1960 and Athens is a hotbed of espionage and intrigue, but Ken Strang doesn't care. He is an architect, and he is in Greece to draw reconstructions of several of the numerous famous ruins scattered throughout the country. However, his friendships with Greek people who belong to different ideological factionsensnare him in a web of conflict he at first finds incomprehensible. He must decide which friend deserves his loyalty, and things are further complicated when he falls head over heels in ...more

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Oct 21, 2020 Kim Kaso rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: retro-reads-finished, 2020lor5000, 2020l-l60, 2020wom

I read this book once upon a time as a teen-ager, and I focused then on the suspense, romance, and the locales that I longed to see one day. I am sure I read the parts about the complex politics of the region and the ever-changing landscape of alliances and betrayals that was partisan fighting during WW II. Fighting the Nazis made for uneasy partnerships which only stopped the fights for political power temporarily. Certain parties would resort to the most inhumane tactics to gain and keep power ...more

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Oct 20, 2020 Elinor rated it liked it · review of another edition

I liked this classic spy novel, but didn't love it. I found it pretty confusing when there were so many political factions (Communists, Fascists, Nihilists) and so many double-crosses going on. The action definitely picked up in the last third, and it had a thrilling climax.

Helen McInnes is brilliant, though, and she had some great passages. This one, I thought, summed up the way some European countries did (and do) view North Americans (and Brits):

"Yes, the Americans and the British were alike ...more

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Apr 12, 2020 Karen rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: travel-2020

This is the third espionage thriller I have read by Helen Macinnes and it won't be my last. The story is dated (it was published in 1960), but it is really the descriptions that come alive in her writing. ...more

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Jun 29, 2022 Sewingdervish rated it really liked it

Dragged a little bit was also a perfect book to read over a busy week.

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Nov 07, 2020 Bobbie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-suspense, group-reads

Retro Reads group read for October 2020. This is my third Helen MacInnis spy novel and although I did enjoy it, it certainly was not my favorite. I found the beginning rather slow and somewhat confusing since I did not know a great deal about the history of Greece during and following World War II. Since I have been to Greece once, I did enjoy reading about the places that I have visited there. I will certainly read more by her but my favorite of hers remains The Venetian Affair.

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Apr 14, 2017 Kathryn Guare rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: riveting-retro

I have only recently discovered Helen MacInnes and am now wondering where she has been all my life. Along with John le Carre, Ian Fleming and Len Deighton, she was one of the spy thriller powerhouses of the 60s-70s and, needless to say, the only woman in that elite group of authors. The writing style of all of them – but particularly MacInnes – makes me realize how much the genre has changed over the years, and not altogether for the better, in my opinion.

Take Decision at Delphi (copyright 1960 I have only recently discovered Helen MacInnes and am now wondering where she has been all my life. Along with John le Carre, Ian Fleming and Len Deighton, she was one of the spy thriller powerhouses of the 60s-70s and, needless to say, the only woman in that elite group of authors. The writing style of all of them – but particularly MacInnes – makes me realize how much the genre has changed over the years, and not altogether for the better, in my opinion.

Take Decision at Delphi (copyright 1960) as an example. The story opens not with bombs or some gruesome, bloody crime scene, nor with some psychologically twisted assassin doing unspeakable things, nor with heroes frantically scrambling to prevent one or more of these. It begins with a send-off party aboard an ocean liner in New York Harbor that’s about to sail for Greece. There’s an introduction to the protagonist, who is not a jaded, hard-bitten seen-it-all operative on assignment for some deadly dark and secretive agency we’ve never heard of. He’s a witty, intelligent architect-turned-artist on assignment for an erudite New York magazine. There is Champagne and caviar and some stage-setting dialogue, a small mystery about a suitcase with his name on it that seems to have been delivered in error, and our first glimpse at an alluring dark-haired photographer that our hero just misses his chance to chat up as the ship gets underway. We instinctively know she will appear again.

Am I on the edge of my seat, chewing my nails or reeling in horror? No, I am settling into a comfy chair with a smile of delight, looking forward to the journey.

If you sit down to listen to a master storyteller spin you a tale (really, who does in this age, but never mind that), you expect it to begin with a deep breath and something along the lines of “once upon a time”. You don’t expect the storyteller to begin by screaming into your face, but somehow that’s what we’ve come to expect from the modern suspense thriller. If your tastes are already hard-wired to that style MacInnes is not for you, but if you’d like to read a more expansive tale that has time for its characters and the relationships between them, that is eager to share its author’s obvious love for the setting, and that moves like a locomotive gradually gaining speed instead of slamming you against your seat back, then this is an author you may enjoy.

I won’t summarize the plot as that’s been done already, but I will say that it had enough complexity and mystery to keep me hooked. The setting descriptions were fantastic, enough to make you feel right in the middle of the Greek countryside—or rambling over the ruins of the Acropolis, or sitting in a little taverna drinking ouzo—without slowing the narrative or weighing you down with unnecessary detail. The writing is engaging and the story intelligent--MacInnes knew her stuff—and while being entertained I also appreciated being educated about an aspect of post-WWII history I knew nothing about.

As it’s a book written in 1960, I suppose it is tempting to say it is dated, and certainly the social customs and gender relations are old-fashioned, but I didn’t find that a barrier to enjoyment, Also, although the politics are of a different era it’s interesting to see how little they change over time. Violent radicals with an ideology based almost entirely on chaos, terror and destruction? Call them nihilists or ISIS, it proves Mark Twain’s observation “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” ...more

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