12 MARCH 1927, Page 44

TIIE DEVIL'S TOWER. By Oliver Ainsworth. (Faber and Gwyer. 7s.

6d.).—Mr. Ainsworth had provided an excellent plot for his mystery story and has also written it extremely well. His villains are unusual—one of them, a dreamy, fanatical Russian, actually dislikes the sight of blood. He has taken for ingredients a murdered Jew, a Scottish proletariat, a young Maharaja, the Crown of Rum (an emerald diadem of great worth) and the Devil's Tower itself. The hero, a retired Scottish Colonel, is suddenly summoned to India by a distressd Maharaja, whom he knew in the days of his youth, and then the adventures begin. The author has broken new groturd : all his characters are really alive, villains and heroes are equally human, and many of them have a sense of humour.