19 OCTOBER 1956, Page 26

It's a Crime

VOTE AGAINST POISON. By John Sherwood. (Hodder and Stoughton, 12s. 6d.) Engagingly lively story of a by-election both caused and bedevilled by murder of sitting member. Flirts just a little too friskily with farce—especially at expense of local Communists—to be completely realistic, but solution not un- related to Professor Ross's now over-celebrated essay on 'Linguistic Class-Indicators in Present-Day English,' which makes this a pretty OK book for U-readers. Written real nice, too.