16 AUGUST 1957, Page 23

The Manasco Road. By Victor Canning. (Hodder and Stoughton, 12s.

6d.) First-rate novels of action and adventure are rare, and here is one that Henley and Stevenson would have clapped their hands over—fast, credible and ex- citing, set in the Majorca of resourceful smug- glers and corruptible policemen, with two tough and implacable men each determined to get away with a cargo grounded on the craggy coast. Human relationships affect the issue—man and man; man and woman—and Mr. Canning is grown-up about them in this adventure story for adults.