If one word can be used to describe William Buckley's new suspense novel [Stained Glass] it is "absorbing" rather than "exciting" but since the book's discriminating readership is almost pre-selected by the erudite fame of the author this can be only high recommendation.

The public has become conditioned, perhaps unfortunately, to a manner of speed writing in spy stories, which helps impel the action, so although the question should be asked: Can a spy story be too well written? its answer, in this case, becomes redundant. This is pure, high grade, artful, beautifully orotund Buckley.

One is never quite so lost in this story of a man chosen by the CIA to eliminate a West German leader rising to power to forget who wrote it, not so entwined in the dastardly plot to lose sight of the elegant sentence structure. In short, if you are a run-of-the-mill-subway or lunch-counter reader you may have to tote an unabridged dictionary under your arm to look up bits of arcanum such as: zeugma, tergiversation or prandial.

However, this simply adds to the book's entertainment value, which is abundant. It is also a good yarn even though it ravels resolutely on to the inevitable ending.