1 NOVEMBER 1957, Page 25

The Twenty-Third Man. By Gladys Mitchell. (Michael Joseph, 13s. 6d.)

As that tiresome old trout Dame Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley becomes noticeably less grotesque and more human, her creator's backgrounds become ever more bizarre. This time, the corpse is discovered among a score or so of embalmed and death- masked ancient monarchs in a cave on an exotic island and not among the living troglodytes, as had been expected. (And what a thing to be asked to expect !) Gladys Mitchell wields a pen stylish enough for something better than this.

CHRISTOPHER PYM