14 JUNE 1957, Page 25

think, one crook—Raffles—and one private detec- tive—Roger Sheringham—have had rooms

in Albany. Here, surely, is the first Scotland-Yard detective-inspector to live there (private means augment his pay packet), whence he emerges into the middle of this admirable, grown-up novel to discover why a publisher's rich wife had driven off a cliff in the dark. Neat plot; sensitive writing; intelligent about human relationships; people probable.