THE GREEN HELMET

by Jon Cleary ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 8, 1957

A thriller- the background professional auto racing, and the proponents, a group of people connected with the sport. Ham and Taz Rafferty, brothers, both belonged in the game, by virtue of their heritage, for their father had been killed at the peak of his fame, in the famous 1000-mile race through Italy, the Mille Miglia. The mother had extracted a promise that while Ham raced, Taz would bide his time, a promise that caused heartache and later resentment on Taz' part when Ham refused to retire after a near disaster. Then into the picture came an American tire manufacturer, a self-made millionaire, accustomed to having his own way, and determined to hire Ham to race- on his tires. His daughter, Sophie, gently reared by her mother, now dead, finds herself reluctantly and surprisingly attracted to Ham, with all his loud dressing and race track ways; and it is she who weighs the scales in favor of her father's proposition. The months that follow, with successive failures on the score of the tires, with a trip to America- and an uncontracted race- with the decision to use a newly projected racing car- builds up to the thrill of the climax, the Mille Miglia. Superb suspense in the racing aspects; the romance is contrived and two-dimensional.

Pub Date: Jan. 8, 1957

ISBN: 1854960431

Page Count: -

Publisher: Morrow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1957

Categories: FICTION