10 FEBRUARY 1956, Page 25

THE SMILING SPIDER. By Leonard Halliday. (Hammond and Hammond, 9s.

6d.) Eventful. thriller, with an Austrian mountain setting, in which an English fencing instructor, once a Labour MP, finds himself entangled in an inordinately complicated spy intrigue. Handicapped by a plot which. obstinately refuses to advance in anything approaching a straight line. An energetic and