The Hidden Target

This is the best of three MacInnes novels featuring Robert Renwick as the hero. They are best read in order: PRELUDE TO TERROR, THE HIDDEN TARGET, and then CLOAK OF DARKNESS. Almost all of MacInnes's novels were about the struggle against either Nazism or Communism, but in this novel the focus has shifted more to international terrorism. Renwick is a former NATO intelligence officer who is starting a new organization, InterIntell. Like InterPol, they exist to be a clearinghouse for information, but instead of drugs they focus on terrorism. The central figure of the novel is Nina O'Connell, a college student who accepts a friend's offer to join a round-the-world student adventure. Unbeknownst to her, she has been specifically targeted by one of the world's most dangerous terrorists. Renwick had almost captured this man, Erik, but he escaped the net. Renwick is hunting him, and he is travelling from country to country on behalf of his Soviet moneyman, recruiting new terrorist cells. Erik wants to use Nina to get close to her father, a high level member of the State Department. Nina is torn between her attraction to "James" and a girlish crush on a man she remeets just before she starts her trip -- Robert Renwick. As the trip progresses and she starts to question the strange behavior of James and his friend Tony, Renwick starts to suspect that Nina's travelling partners may also be the terrorists he is hunting. Which man will Nina choose? And will she survive the choice? This is one of MacInnes's best novels.