Displaced Person

Hilton's death in 1986 ended his career as an honored British author, best known for the novels about Superintendent Simon Kenworthy, intelligence officer. Some 40 years after serving in World War II, Kenworthy is retired but asked to cooperate with the French police on a frustrating and delicate matter. The story unfolds in the ex-soldier's memory of adolescent Marie-Therese Laniel, an orphan refugee who had clung to his troop detachment, slogging across France and Holland in the wake of the fleeing German army. All efforts to get rid of Marie-Therese fail; indeed, she is nearly indispensable as she cooks, cleans and sews for the marching men. Finally, Kenworthy satisfies his sense of responsibility for the girl, placing her in a hospitable Belgian home. An old man now, he's reunited with Marie-Therese in Paris where she's charged with blackmail and murder. Beautifully written, the novel sweeps from past to present and to the stunning denouement, always holding one in thrall to the ""displaced person,'' who lives the only way she can. (March)