Published by Penguin in 1957, ‘The Mask of Glass’ was one of a dozen crime novels published by Holly Roth (1916-1964, presumed lost at sea) who also produced work under the pseudonyms of P.J Merrill and K.G. Ballard. Roth began her career as a model, a job for which the back of the book tells us ‘she was well suited.’ She spent a period as a journalist before turning to novels and shorter fiction.
‘The Mask of Glass’ is not long, this Penguin edition is only 154 pages but it is a fast paced spy thriller, absolutely packed with action as we follow the career of Jimmy Kennemore, a young Army intelligence officer disfigured and forced to change his identity after an explosion in which he is presumed to have died.
What makes this book so interesting is that it belongs so completely to the decade in which it was written. As the story unfolds we could be nowhere else but in 1950s America, in the height of anti Communist paranoia. The anxiety and fear of those years runs through every page.
The Solitary Reader 