3 MAY 1957, Page 31

It's a Crime

Escape and Be Secret. By Charles Gibbs-Smith. (Heinemann, 15s.) Escape-through-the-Iron-Cur- tain sort, set in Vienna, the mountains, and the very best postal districts of London. (If Sacher's is Sacher's, and the Athenceum the Athenaeum, why is the Dorchester the Porchester?) Per- suasively written; highly civilised in style and feeling; yet not so much so as not to be lively and exciting. The author is as plausible as Ian Fleming with the technicalities of counter- espionage, if nothing 'like so cruel with his characters. A most courteously thrilling thriller.