''The Silent Hostage'' is a 1960

spy Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ''e ...

thriller novel Thriller is a genre of fiction with numerous, often overlapping, subgenres, including crime, horror, and detective fiction. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving their audiences heightened feelings of suspe ...

by the British writer

Sarah Gainham Rachel Ames, née Stainer (London, 1 October 1915 – Petronell, Austria, 24 November 1999) was a British novelist and journalist who wrote under the pseudonym Sarah Gainham. She is perhaps best known for her 1967 novel '' Night Falls on the Cit ...

. Before writing her most celebrated work '' Night Falls on the City'', Gainham produced several thrillers set in

Continental Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous mainland of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by som ...

where she had lived since 1947.Burton p.171 The novel takes place on the

Adriatic Coast The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to ...

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

not long after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Synopsis

Kate Dodds, the widow of a British war hero, is invited by the

Titoist Titoism is a Types of socialism, socialist political philosophy most closely associated with Josip Broz Tito and refers to the ideology and policies of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (LCY) during the Cold War. It is characterized by a br ...

Yugoslav government to visit the country where her husband served alongside the

partisans Partisan(s) or The Partisan(s) may refer to: Military * Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line ** Francs-tireurs et partisans, communist-led French anti-fascist resistance against Nazi Germany during WWII ** Itali ...

. Before long she is caught up in intrigue amidst early

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

politics.

References

Bibliography

* Burton, Alan. ''Historical Dictionary of British Spy Fiction''. Rowman & Littlefield, 2016. * Reilly, John M. ''Twentieth Century Crime & Mystery Writers''. Springer, 2015. * Smith, Myron J. & White, Terry. ''Cloak and Dagger Fiction: An Annotated Guide to Spy Thrillers''. Greenwood Press, 1995. 1960 British novels Novels by Sarah Gainham British thriller novels British spy novels Novels set in Yugoslavia Eyre & Spottiswoode books {{1960s-spy-novel-stub