3 MAY 1930, Page 32

DEATH TRAPS. By Kay Strahan. _ (Gollanez. 7s. (3d.) B.

Lueky (grocer, and worth five thousand et, year to me- as an ad. . . .) " is the hero of this story. He attains this position mainly by his invincible refusal finally to think the worst of any of his own family or friends, hOwever black the evidence against them may be. It is, however, some- what precariously held, since he cannot bring himself to suspect even the murderer. Nevertheless his portrait and ,those of his family are all well drawn, and their, mutual relations realistic and not, as realism is usually conceived, unnatural. This element in the book is, indeed, so successful that attention is distracted from a very tidy plot.