END OF THE LINE

by Stanley Baron ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 20, 1951

The publishers suggest this as a novel of intrigue in the genre of Eric Ambler and Graham Greene, which to this reader seems to place the author quite out of his class. There's little in this unsavory melodrama of Communist intrigue tangles with sex and alcohol, and the cant of characters contains not a single credible or appealing figure. There's Emily, nymphomaniac wife of a rather naive American diplomat, Peter, assigned to the Paris Embassy. There's his mother, a worthy woman who likes to manage. There's Peter Halliday's shillyshallying chief, Cort, and his alcoholic wife. And there are the Communists and their fringe and chiefly Emily's latest passion, Theo Levy, a young Communist who likes to prove he could accomplish the impossible, and who was at odds with his chiefs because of some of his mad ideas. It is a story of Paris, from the level of diplomatic society to the scum caught up in the web of Communist machinations. An unpalatable story, with little to recommend it.

Pub Date: Aug. 20, 1951

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1951

Categories: FICTION