AustLit

'Into a perfectly normal, well-to-do, middle class house burst two strangers, political assassins who plan to murder a traitor from their side of the world as he returns to his home opposite their temporary hideout. The two, captain and sergeant, make their plans and the captive family is powerless to do anything. Father and captain argue, humanitarian against ruthless killer, the east of the Iron Curtain against the west. With the maddening leisureliness proper to such a situation, we wait until the plot fails and both killers are dead. Then comes the twist, which could not be disclosed were this a film or a play for the stage. This is not London but Moscow; without knowing it, we have all along been on the wrong side of world politics.

'Whether this proves anything or not, it is at least liberally humane; political assassins are deplorable but heroic whatever they serve, and ordinary people, pretty much the same everywhere, naturally dislike bloodshed. As a thesis, this may not be startling; as a surprise ending to a thriller, it has a splendid effectiveness.'

Source:

'Skilful Exercise in Suspense', The Times, 5 December 1960, p.16.