29 NOVEMBER 1930, Page 33

THE FRENCH POWDER MYSTERY. By Ellery Queen. (Gollancz. 75. 6d.)—When

the wife of the owner of a depart- ment store tumbles, shot through the heart, out of a collapsible bed in a demonstration window of the store, you have a, situation such as any detective of fiction will revel in. Ellery Queen, which is, strangely enough, the name of the brilliant young detective in Mr. Queen's story, is never very seriously puzzled by the case, which he works out with some ingenuity, once on the spot, once with his father, and once more before the assembled principals at the final "showdown," which is well arranged. The only drawback is that one hears all the facts three times, but even then one reader at least does not find the murderer.