Halls' book Beat Not the Bones won the then newly created Edgar Allan Poe Award of the Mystery Writers' Association of America for Best Novel of the Year in 1954.
Halls was born as Geraldine Mary Jay in Adelaide, South Australia on the 17 December 1919.
[3] She married Albert Halls, an Oriental specialist, who worked with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
[2] The other books are set in Pakistan, Japan, Thailand, England, Lebanon, India, Papua New Guinea and the Trobriand Islands.
After a long career in writing, Halls died on 27 October 1996, in her home town of Adelaide.