14 JUNE 1957, Page 25

It'r a Crime

Alien Virus. By Alan Caillou. (Peter Davies, 13s. 6d.)• Brisk and pleasing foreign-affairs adven- ture story, set in the Cairo of between Neguib and Nasser. The hot and exotic grubbiness of the Near East is particularly well sketched in, and it ts an excellent secret-service scamper in its own right, geared to the frightening facts of world affairs.