25 JANUARY 1957, Page 23

Death by Proxy. By E. 13. Ronald. (Boardman, 10s. 6d.)

Murder mystery set in London and peopled by Londoners, but retailed in near- American idiom, so that shamuses ride in elevators, at five minutes of eight, after a bourbon or, so. The improbability thus aroused is intensi- fied by statement that victim is a member of both the Travellers' and the Junior Army and Navy, a most unlikely two of clubs.