20 AUGUST 1965, Page 21

Joker Take Queen. By Bruce Munslow. (John 1..ong, 15s.) Nothing

ever happened in remote Pindletor, on the edge of Dartmoor, and yet what Chris Knight saw .on the common on the first night of' his visit sent him running to the village hall for sanctuary and company. His projected rest-cure brought him nearer to a violent death than he had ever been in his life. The final solution is surprising. A Nice Place to Die. By Maurice Culpan. (Crime Club, I5s.) Chief Detec-.• live Inspector Houghton, CID, on holiday in a remote Cornish village, is roped in to investigate a local murder. A handful of, disagreeable sus- pects antagonise him and make him all the more determined to trip them up. It's being dogged as does it in the end. Neat. Still as the Grave. By Mary Linn Roby. (Crime Club, 15s.) Actress Kate Wakefield murders her unfaithful husband, is viciously blackmailed into remarrying, and is terrorised' by her .callous new husband. She knew it was an accident when he fell under a bus, but what did the police think? The writer of this first novel giveS us a grim but logical ending.