House of the Hunted

Set in 1935, Mills’s genial suspense novel stars Tom Nash, a former SIS operative haunted by his past, particularly a tragic encounter involving his lover, Irina Bibikov, in Russia in 1919. Now a writer, Nash is enjoying a well-heeled expatriate life on the French Riviera, surrounded by a large supporting cast, including his longtime spymaster, Leonard Pike; Pike’s 20-something daughter and Nash’s goddaughter, Lucy; and White Russian émigrés Yevgeny and Fanya Martynov, who run a Paris art gallery. An unsuccessful attempt on Nash’s life jolts him out of this idyll, forcing him to resuscitate his spy skills and question the loyalty of those around him. The undercurrent of threat to Nash, coupled with the harbingers of the coming war in Europe, is at odds with the lovely foreground setting, as if Mills (Amagansett) can’t decide whether he’s writing a historical soap opera or a thriller. Pleasing prose and convincing period detail compensate only in part for a sluggish plot. Agent: Stephanie Cabot, the Gennert Agency. (Apr.)