21 SEPTEMBER 1956, Page 24

THE FINAL RUN. By Douglas Sanderson. (Secker and Warburg, 10s.

6d.) Diamond-smuggling and refugee-running across the halo-Yugoslav frontier by a writer who patently doesn't care for the Tito regime; who knows his Venice and Trieste; and who has as pretty a talent for torture scenes as Ian Fleming. There is an echo of Hemingway staccato in the prose; great pace; and a Turkish-delight fancier of a villain who would have had to be played by the late Sydney Greenstreet if this had been filmed in his lifetime. No doubt it will be filmed : there are roles for two bosomy Italian beauties, one fair, one dark; and Venetian canals for the corpses.