29 JUNE 1956, Page 22

A COLD COMING. By Mary Kelly. (Seeker and Warburg, 12s.

6d.) 'A Suspense Novel,' promises the dust-cover, which may have reference to those first eighteen solid pages one plods through to get to the first piece of conversation, and an inkling of what it's all about. Full marks for the scenes on the Great North Road, and for the glimpses of grand opera, and of one of those experi- mental stations where people catch colds on purpose, but the plot needs disciplining and the prose pruning.