THE KEYS OF HELL - Book review

 

This Jack Higgins novel was first published in 1965. However, in 2001 Higgins revisited the book (which had long been out of print) and tacked book-end chapters, the first and last taking place in Manhattan, 1995. The rest of the book is shown as occurring in 1965, which he also revised, though it could have been improved more, I feel.

It’s Higgins’s third novel featuring his ‘super-spy’ Paul Chavasse, following from The Testament of Caspar Schultz (1961) and Year of the Tiger (1963).

Only recently returned from a hair-raising adventure in Albania, Paul is meeting his boss, The Chief of the Bureau, in the embassy in Rome. Though due for leave, Paul is tasked with going back into Albania and assassinating a double agent, Noci.

Shortly after disposing of Noci, he saves an attractive woman who is being assaulted in the street. It’s Francesca Minetti – he met her at the embassy. She’s Italian-Albanian and works for the Bureau. She has a private problem – her village’s Black Madonna was spirited away before the secret police could steal it. Unfortunately, it sank with her brother and his boat in the marshes and she barely escaped. Would he help her retrieve the statue? It is a symbol of faith against the repressive Communist regime.

He can’t resist the offer.

Higgins paints an interesting picture of the politics of the period, and the search amidst the marshes is masterfully evoked. Inevitably, there is betrayal, courage, capture and escape, the pace rarely letting up.

The tacked-on end chapter works well, too – cleverly done.

I could not find any reference to the keys of Hell in the text; there is a quotation at the front, an Arabic proverb: There are no keys to Hell –the doors are open to all men.

If I had one issue: I lost count of the number of times Paul – and others – lit cigarettes; a veritable commercial for tobacco or a lazy method of breaking up speech or having the protagonist just do something.

A fast read.

Here's a review of the first Paul Chavasse book:

http://nik-writealot.blogspot.com/2015/04/ffb-testament-of-caspar-schultz.html

Here are some thoughts on Jack Higgins, with a quotation from his final Chavasse book:

http://nik-writealot.blogspot.com/2010/12/editors-pet-peaves-01-whats-empty.html