GUNMAN. By F. C. Coe. (Mundanus. 8a), -Gunman presents an
exciting and vivid picture of American crime. The story deals with the activities of Antonio Scrarvak, a prosperous egg merchant and king, in his neighbourhood, of bootleggers or hi-jackers and racketeers. It shows Antonio at home, bickering with his wife and children, bullying his cowardly lawyer, turning his home into an arsenal, bossing his lieutenants, and resisting, with machine guns, the attack of a rival. Antonio is a definitely unpleasant, unheroic character, and the overthrow of his regime by the cunning of one of the most original of detectives rouses a feeling of satisfaction in the reader's mind and ranges him instinctively —an unusual reaction—on the side of law and order. There is the usual background of corrupt judges, police and courts, and an inept citizens' committee for stamping out crime, to which Scrarvak sardonically contributes large sums of money.
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