Finesse or Drop at trick 5?
On further consideration, while E might hold the H Q, East cannot hold the H Qxx or better, because then East would have responded to 1S, probably with 1NT. Therefore the finesse is either hopeless or pointless, because if East has the QH singleton or doubleton it will drop. Playing for the drop is still the better play, although it will fail if west has the QH in a 3 or 4 card suit. So the author was right, although the reasoning was incomplete.