The Ministry of Fear Author:Graham Greene A masterful tale of suspense and one of Graham Greene's best loved entertainments - The Ministry of Fear takes place in London during the Blitz. Arthur Rowe, a tall, stooping, lean man with a sharp, narrow face, a twisted nose, and a "too sensitive," mouth is hoping for a nostalgic return to his youth and an escape from wartime gloom when he en... more »ters a fete benefiting the Free Mothers. Instead, he finds himself the unwitting prey of malign and shadowy forces after winning a cake intended for someone else. When the private investigator he hires to help him identify his pursuers turns up dead, he begins to realize he is somehow the key to an elaborate spy plot intended to destroy his country. Afraid to go to the police due to his own complicated past, he endeavors to free himself from the deadly ring of espionage alone, unable to trust anyone - not even, possibly, the woman he loves.
As in many of Greene's entertainments, myriad layers lie beneath the surface plot, and as the action keeps a relentless pace, the various moral complexities of the characters multiply. Rowe suffers gruesome encounters as he tries to escape his sinister entanglement, each taking him one step farther from all he wanted in the first place: a return to innocence.« less