The Girl from Addis

by Ted Allbeury

The Girl From Addis

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Espionage

191 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1984

About the author

1917 - 2005. Also wrote under the pseudonyms Richard Butler and Patrick Kelly.

Ted Allbeury was a lieutenant-colonel in the Intelligence Corps during World War II, and later a successful executive in the fields of marketing, advertising and radio. He began his writing career in the early 1970s and became well known for his espionage novels, but also published one highly-praised general novel, THE CHOICE, and a short story collection, OTHER KINDS OF TREASON. His novels have been published in twenty-three languages, including Russian. He died on 4th December 2005.


See also: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2006/j...
and
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/a/t...

Reviews

[Carsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

I purchased this as an ebook because I was intrigued by the Ethiopian setting (having myself travelled extensively both there, and in Eritrea and in Sudan). I haven't read a lot of Allbeury's works and those that I recall had more traditional WWII or espionage settings.

There were several things that I liked -the author clearly knows the country and is strong on place/features/politics, also in relation to the issues of the minority cultures / independence drives in the Ogaden (particularly) and today's Eritreea (then still part of Ethiopia). The protagonist (and therefore the author) is self-aware of unconscious European/African patronising/prejudice/white saviour issues to the locals and wrestles with these - and while I suspect a book written in 2019 would perhaps deal with these topics even better, for a book written in the early 1980's I was favourably impressed that this theme was addressed. The protagonist also 'grows' in the book, so there is more character development than often found in books of that genre and era, perhaps because the author generally does not have 'seroes' characters. He also addresses some real world moral issues, giving this book more depth than I had expected.

There are some weaknesses too: (trying here to avoid spoilers by being too specific) (i) for me I am not sure that the 'romantic interest' is consistently described and there are issues here that some readers may not be pleased by and (ii) the protagonist sometimes seems too competent and yet on another occasion makes an elementary mistake, one that assists the plot).

I read up on Allbeury afterwards and discovered that not only was he in espionage in WWII (and even parachuted to work undercover in Nazi Germany) but he was active then also in the Ethiopian region, which explains both his interest in the area and his ability to write about it.

[Jak60 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was quite intrigued by the blurb of The Girl From Addis: having a cold war spy story taking place elsewhere than East Berlin or Moscow was refreshing. The Russian struggle to establish their influence in the horn of Africa against the local resistance movements provided a rather original backdrop to the plot, so I was more than ready to immerse myself in the story.
I thought though the book started off somewhat on the wrong foot: an agent is sent back to the place where he'd been busted and expelled as persona non grata a few years before...this is something you don't expect to happen in espionage (or at least in good espionage novels)..
A while into the story, our agent meets a local angelic beauty -skin like silk and stuff like that - and in no time (1) he's in bed and (2) he's in love with her; shortly afterwards they decide to marry and the girl is enrolled into the agent’s mission. This does happen in espionage novels, but rather in James Bond’s, I would not expect this in Ted Allbeury's stories (not in the good ones anyway); moreover, the young lady speaks a faltering english at the beginning of the book while she's perfectly fluent by the end: miracles of loves....
Details, one could say; certainly so, but they are a sign of a carelessness that puts me of a little; moreover, there's a problem of substance as well, as the plot is rather thin and with some loopholes.
All in all, not the best by Ted Allbeury in my view,

[Philip Higgins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ethiopia and Somalia in the early 1980s is an unusual and colourful setting for a thriller. There are Russians, Cubans, criminals and spies: all good stuff, albeit a bit "by the numbers". What sets it apart is the author's laconic style, some interesting anecdotal detail and an ending that breaks from Allbeury's customary bleakness.
There are moments v. much "of their time" that might offend some ie. our hero playfully calling his beloved a silly bitch. There's also an interesting take on Cold War African politics and a slightly unlikely May/December romance. I was rooting for our war vet hero, spy turned photographer turned spy again, Johnny Grant (great name).
SPOILER ALERT: I found it poignant that our hero and heroine decide to abandon the cold & bigotry of London's rat race in favour of their African idyll...in Mogadishu.

[Terence Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Usual first rate story telling from this gifted ajthor

Usual first rate at telling from this gifted author who never fails to grip the reader from the very first page.

[Nigel Pinkus · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of this reader's favourite Ted Allbeury novels. An unusually feel good novel by an author who didn't get the accolades that he deserved. Allbeury, in this reader's opinion, was almost as good as le Carre, Graham Greene, Len Deighton and Gerald Seymour. A pretty lofty bunch of espionage authors who were 'pretty good' when it came to writing in the spy genre. Allbeury, who passed away in 2005, wrote his best stories, not surprisingly set during the cold war days in East Berlin where there were plenty of spoof's such as the Stazi (the East Germans), the SIS Secret Intelligence Service (English), the CIA (the Americans), the west Germans and the KGB (the Russians) who were all in a cauldron of subterfuge and counter-bluff.

Ironically, this story was set not in East Germany, but in Addis Abada (Ethiopia) in East Africa with references to Somalia and also Eritrea for good measure. It's a story that doesn't even reach 200 pages, but Allbeury made every page count with plenty of action, intrigue, suspense and with a diabolical ending! There isn't a lot more to say than it's an unusual feel good story for the day. Also, it should be said that Allbeury gave excellent reasons why many expats live in foreign countries. It's usually due to love and Allbeury fleshes out this love story with plenty of espionage and action. Whilst a complete work of fiction, he gave a very plausible storyline, believable characters and very believable descriptions of the area. It was like you were walking behind Johnny exploring the grasslands and forests with him. Five beautiful stars for this special story!

Ted Allbeury wrote a staggering 42 novels and wrote under two other pen names ~ Richard Butler and Patrick Kelly as well. Here are 28 read’s from Allbeury, all rated accordingly:

THE GOOD (Four to Five Stars): ‘The Lantern Network’, ’Shadow of a Doubt’, ’A Wilderness of Mirrors', 'A Time Without Shadows' aka 'The Rules of the Game', 'The Only Good German' aka ‘Mission Berlin’, 'The Dangerous Edge', ‘Palomino Blonde’ aka 'Omega- minus', 'The Lonely Margins', ’The Crossing' aka ‘The Berlin Exchange’, 'Seeds of Treason', 'Other Kinds of Treason', 'Special Forces' aka 'Moscow Quadrille', the feel good, 'The Girl From Addis', 'Pay Any Price' and the rather exceptional, and this person's favourite, 'The Line-Crosser' (published in 1993).

THE AVERAGE (Two or Three Stars): 'Show Me a Hero', 'No Place to Hide' aka ‘Hostage’, ‘The Reckoning’, ’The Twentieth Day of January’ a.k.a. ‘Cold Tactics’, 'The Reaper' aka 'The Stalking Angel' and ‘Deep Purple’. He also wrote, ’The Choice' which is not espionage and this reader thought (even though it was critically acclaimed) not a good one.

THE UGLY (One or two stars): It’s, however, probably best to stay away from: ‘Aid and Comfort’, ‘The Assets' aka “Due Process’, 'The Secret Whispers’, 'The Alpha List', ’Consequences of Fear' aka ‘Smokescreen’ and ’The Spirit of Liberty'.

[Lysergius · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Cold War thriller with a different setting.