Prelude to Terror

New York art expert Colin Grant takes on an easy commission: to travel to Vienna and bid on a priceless Old Master on behalf of a Texan millionaire. The painting has been smuggled out of Hungary by a defector, and Grant must get it at any cost, while keeping his employer’s name a secret. But all is not as it seems. No sooner has Grant landed in Austria than his seemingly simple assignment turns into a nightmare, as he finds himself at the centre of a conspiracy to unleash a wave of international terrorism.


Grant must now navigate a hidden and terrifying world, as he and the woman he loves become pawns in a war between the secret armies of East and West.

Helen MacInnes (1907-1985) was the Scottish-born American author of 21 spy novels. Dubbed “the queen of spy writers”, her books have sold more than 25 million copies in the United States alone and have been translated into over 22 languages. Several of her books have been adapted into films, such as Above Suspicion (1943), with Joan Crawford, and The Salzburg Connection (1972).