Monday, September 19, 2005

George Joseph


I finished George Joseph's The Curtain Has Lace Fringes (1954) today. It was a fast-paced espionage book, not very extraordinary, but not bad either. The gallery of characters was entertaining and had everything from French communists to crazy Nazi officers who still think the war is going on. The hero is Shane Dallow, British spy who likes fast cars, pretty women and French cognac. As I said, nothing extraordinary. Ian Fleming's first Bonds showed through, but the book also reminded me of A.S. Fleischmann's (= YA author Sid Fleischmann) spy novels from the early fifties. Joseph was a Glasgow-born New-Zealander, who published most of his books in the UK.

The Finnish cover on the left. The book was published in the US by Popular Library as Leave It to Me.

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