25 FEBRUARY 1928, Page 28

THE HIGHGATE MYSTERY. By Charles Kingstone. (The Bodle$.• 'Head. 7s.

6d.),There is a great lack of. finish about Mr. 'Kingston's book-. When one first readi 'aboUt Miriam Fergus, " one of those women who buy their postage stamps in chemists' shops and borrow time-tables from butchers," one hopes for that virtue of characterization which is so rare in detective fiction. But though the hero and the villain are quite well drawn, the other characters speak and act as though worked by machinery. The mystery is quite mysterious and has a good climax, yet one feels that the author could write a much better lrook.