Mask of Glass is an amnesia/double identity novel written by Holly Roth in 1954. Involving a cold war government conspiracy that seems to twist and turn, it's to her credit there is very little violence or sex - just an intelligent and complex plot. I've found nothing on the web about this book, so here is a review.
Jimmy Kennemore is drifting in and out of consciousness, his body a mass of casts and bandages as he recovers from operations and plastic surgery. He is in the office of his trusted family friend Doc Steinfeld, to whom he relates his story:
Just out of college, Jimmy registered to work with the Army's Counter Intelligence Corps, as an information collector. His baby face is a bit of a hindrance to being taken seriously, but he likes working alone. Checking into the whereabouts of a man called William Smith leads him to a rundown camera shop, seeming to be a front for something. He realizes it's actually an office for the Army CIC he works for - but when the men hear the name William Smith they attack him, tie him up, take him to an abandoned warehouse and leave him with the identity papers of a man called William Murphy - and a time bomb set to explode. Surviving the blast, he makes his way to Doc's office where he is restored to health. To the world, Kennemore is thought dead, as is the alias William Murphy.
Not knowing who to trust, and now with a completely new face and identity, he is free to investigate that office once again. He can't believe the government or any agency officially connected with it would have ordered him killed by a time bomb - it would amount to delusions of persecution that they were all in league against him! He's helped by his girlfriend Rita, otherwise no one believes he is alive. Soon the FBI are on his tail and the conspiracy of secret levels of government being infiltrated from within by communist agents is revealed.
It's entertaining and original, despite somewhat cliche revelation of a communist angle. Being 1954, they are usually to blame, although this time they really went far and took a lot of time to realize their nefarious plans. She explored an interesting point about how you are received in the world - good looking people are generally used to being looked at in public, and unattractive people are used to being looked away from, when that changes it alters your perception of who you are.
I had never heard of Holly Roth, but bought this and another thriller of hers (The Content Assignment. Looking online, there aren't any images of her books.
Perhaps she is another author slowly retreating into the mist.
1954 / Hardcover / 222 pages
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