3 MAY 1957, Page 31

Boiled Alive. By Bruce Buckingham. (Michael Joseph, 12s. 6d.) This

publisher's crime novels are so elegantly printed as to add 10 per cent. or so to the readability. So this may not be quite so good as I think it is, and perhaps there are too many characters (English, American and Mexican, almost all high-born, except for the extremely implausible journalist) and too many murders. The corpses tend to be discovered in the hot springs at the smart Mexican spa-hotel, lovingly described, and all is as deliciously readable as the cooking sounds eatable. -