Venetian Blind (novel)

A Colonel Charles Russell of the Security Executive, a not entirely imaginary British counter-espionage organization, while not a protagonist in the technical sense, holds the story line together in the background by his operations, while the characters in the foreground carry the action.

Through his ties with a minor figure from Slow Burner, a Professor Wasserman, Colonel Russell learns that leaks regarding the highly secret work on negative gravity have been making their way to a rival firm in Germany for several years now.

The New York Times: In VENETIAN BLIND (Washburn, $2.95), William Haggard effectively draws a larger-than-life engineer-tycoon, a modern magnifico who lives in the grand manner unoppressed by codes and conventions.

[2]Anthony Cronin, Times Literary Supplement, date unknown: (I)ts worst fault is that it is one of those smart thrillers which exude self-satisfaction about their milieu — in this case cabinet level top-security and millionaire industrialist high-life — and treat the reader as a sort of gawking poor relation.

The plot is mildly ingenious but highly improbable.Kirkus Reviews:The ramifications of a search for security leaks bring barrister Wakeley into the official orbit that is circling give-aways on "Negative Gravity", take him from England to Venice, and prove he is not perfectly equipped for the job.