The Silent Barrier

About the book

Helen Wynton can describe European railway routes in detail, but her income has made travel a pleasure of the imagination. When American mining engineer Charles K. Spencer overhears her wishing for an Alpine holiday, he decides to supply the opportunity without revealing himself as its source. An apparent professional assignment takes Helen toward the Engadine, where the landscape's beauty is accompanied by concealed intentions and rival interests. Spencer's intervention is generous, but its secrecy makes it difficult for Helen to understand the circumstances in which she finds herself. Tracy combines a travel romance with suspense built around incomplete knowledge and unequal resources. The mountain setting supplies both recreation and physical danger, bringing the characters' judgments of courage and reliability into sharper focus.

• Generosity and secrecy
• Travel and opportunity
• Trust under pressure

Why read it

Helen's imaginary journeys become a real expedition whose hidden arrangements make every new acquaintance harder to judge.

English Grosset and Dunlap text with the 1908 and 1911 Edward J. Clode copyrights