23 MARCH 1956, Page 23

THE BODY IN THE BASKET. By George Bagby. (Macdonald, 10s.

6d.) Out of the wrapper at you comes a rakish, scarlet car, raising clouds of dust in the sunny Spanish landscape. Hot, fast, highly coloured—a fair indication of what's inside, where a couple of Manhattan cops on leave tangle with international crime in Madrid, Gibraltar, and thereabouts, and eat the proper dishes, lovingly described.