The House of Shade … is in Zanzibar but Dany Ashton is in London and the police want her for questioning. So, one thing leading to another, she boards the plane as the secretary of a very tipsy young American publisher. M. M. Kaye's comic romance (with detection) takes a nimble, cooly absurd, somewhat word-heavy course, making admirable use of a handsome drench in the charms of Zanzibar. The sound of Americans (two of whom have strategic places in the plot) eludes Miss Kaye, whose range of British voices is well enough heard. It's a pleasant piece of work, striving a little hard for its thrills but keeping one diverted well enough.

James Sandoe, in a review of "The House of Shade," in New York Herald Tribune Book Review (© I.H.T. Corporation; reprinted by permission), September 20, 1959, p. 15.