Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Saturday 21 April 1956, page 14


HOVELS REVIEWED]

Loyalty wins

out-twice

t "G R EAU R THE!; ¡¡TRUTH," by Ralph W.¡¡ ¡¡ Peterson. Lond. Arthur ¡¡ ¡| Barker. Aust. price, 15/6. ¡¡ ' ¡¡ Reviewed by. Gordon ¡¡

¡| . Stewart. !¡

:: ':' "THE FACELESS ONES'

¡; by Lindsay Hardy. Robert ; ¡ ; Hale, London. English

¡¡price, 9/6. "I !; Reviewed by Judy Joy

. 'I ' Davies. '¡

********* .

TT wouldn't need the type

writer motif on the dust jacket to alert any newspaperman that "Greater the Truth" is a novel , about their profession.

Thè youngest cadet could complete a famous journalistic tag by adding the words,

"the greater the libel" to' Ralph Peterson's title for his latest novel.

This is a book you will find hard to put down. It is a factual picture of the day-to-day life of a feature journalist employed by a large London paper. <

The plot is uncomplicated.. Should a newspaperman let a sense of obligation, love, infatuationwhatever it may be-interfere with him filing a smash scoop?

How Nick Merrick, the journalist, faces up to this problem, which so often confronts the honest journalist, is told by Ralph Peterson in a very satisfying, quietly dramatic fashion.

His style of writing is entertainingly impressionist. You can almost feel the hangovers Nick Merrick enjoys.

And you philosophically deflate with him, in anti-climax, when, Anally faced with the problem cf loyalty or a news story - he lets loyalty win.

lyiAJOR GREGORY KEEN, 1TJ^ famous MJ.5 , agent, is

'again deep in international

intrigue, as through the ruins of Berlin he trails American secret Journals stolen front'a plane crash.

The journals are held by a man called Mayerling who is ready -to sell them to tha highest bidder - the Russians in the East or Britain In

the West.

So Keen goes to West Berlin meets Anna, a girl with honey"colored hair, who leads him ti Mayerling-and near death.

As Keen trails Mayerling he ii stalked by unknown and unseer

assassins.

There is the man with the cong! who waits in the Berlin ruins fo Keen-the gunman who fires fron point-blank range yet misses - th car screaming through the coli winter night, that never quit catches the M.I.5 man.

There is Ronda, who lived li

terror; Christopher Miles, an Ame rican S.S. operator, and at last

May erling.

"The Faceless Ones," by Au! tralian thriller author tindsa Hardy, is guaranteed to chill yot spine and keep you buried in th

book until thc end.