Books: Catalytic Agent

Catalytic Agent

I AM JONATHAN SCRIVENER—Claude Houghton—Simon & Schuster ($1). One James Wrexham, impoverished but well-educated Englishman past his first youth, is distastefully employed in a real-estate office. One day he answers an advertisement in the London Times, is accepted, becomes secretary to mysterious, invisible Jonathan Scrivener.

Secretary Wrexham never sees his employer, who goes abroad after hiring his secretary solely on the strength of his letter of application. Wrexham's only duties are to live in Scrivener's London flat, catalog his library, receive his friends, write occasional reports to the absent...

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