CONSPIRATOR (184 pp.) Humphrey Slater Harcourt, Brace ($2.50).
This speedy, thrilling novel begins with a courtship so disarmingly warm and sunny that no reader will dream of the horrors that are lying in wait.
Major Desmond Ferneaux-Lightfoot, D.S.O., of His Majesty's .Brigade of Guards, fascinated Harriet because his character was so mixed. Snootily correct in his brilliant uniform, free-&-easy in old country clothes, Desmond's "animal eyes" made him a scary lover, but he had a wonderfully gentle way with children. To hear him in church, intoning the responses in a pious voice, was enough to convince you that he was a...