Born in Glasgow, Scotland, on October 7, 1907, Helen MacInnes grew up from the age of five in Helensburgh, Dumbartonshire. She graduated from Glasgow University with an M.A. degree in 1928 and remained at the university for a year afterward as a special cataloger in the library. After a year of library work with the Education Authority of Dumbartonshire she entered the School of Librarianship of University College, London, in 1930. She graduated in 1931. In September 1932 she married Gilbert Highet, who was just beginning his academic career at Oxford. Over the next several years they collaborated on a number of translations from German. In 1938, after Highet had taught for a year as guest professor at Columbia University, he accepted a permanent post there and the family settled in New York City.
A short time later Helen MacInnes began her first book, Above Suspicion, which appeared in 1941. A tale of espionage in Nazi Europe, it was an immediate success, widely praised for its suspense and humor, and it was made into a motion picture in 1943. Assignment in Brittany followed in 1942 and was also made into a movie. While We Still Live, 1944, and Horizon, 1946, were both suspenseful tales of World War II. Friends and Lovers, a love story, 1947, was followed by a series of thriller novels of international intrigue and Cold War tension: Rest and Be Thankful, 1949, Neither Five Nor Three, 1951, I and My True Love, 1953, Pray for a Brave Heart, 1955, North from Rome, 1958, Decision at Delphi, 1960, The Venetian Affair, 1963, The Double Image, 1966, The Salzburg Connection, 1968, Message from Mçlaga, 1971, The Snare of the Hunter, 1974, Agent in Place, 1976, and Prelude to Terror, 1978, The Hidden Target, 1980, Cloak of Darkness, 1982, and her final book, Ride a Pale Horse, 1984.
Her books were nearly all best sellers and were frequently translated and reissued; several more were made into motion pictures. Critics and readers alike noted her skillful and credible portrayal of espionage and the human characters involved in it. She credited her success to thorough research and ╥underlying everything is the fact that I'm interested in international politics, in analyzing news, to read newspapers both on and between the lines, to deduct and add, to utilize memory.╙
Helen MacInnes and her husband were naturalized American citizens in 1951 (he died in 1978). She died on September 30, 1984, in New York City.
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