16 JANUARY 1959, Page 24

It's a Crime

The Stone Roses. By Sarah Gainham. (Eyre and Spottiswoode, 13s. 6d.) Miss Gainham knows Central Europe, and can write. Her latest thriller• is set in Prague, as the Communists take over; brilliantly sketches in the lorn and lovely city; and goes with great pace and mounting excite- ment as the Soviet agent (a remarkable creation) manceuvres to prevent her British opponent from getting his Czech lover and her politically impor- tant brother over the frontier to the West. Atmosphere, political sense and narrative skill put this in the top rank of iron-curtain thrillers.