Workmanlike Detection

rder in Triplicate. By Hugh Austin. (Heinemann...247s 6d.) The Crimson Patch. By Phoebe Atwood Taylor. (Gollalaez. is. 6d.)

Murder in Mesopotamia. By Agatha Christie. (Crime Club. 7s. 6d.) Murder at the Polls. By Milton Propper. (Harrap. 7s. 6d.) The COrPse in' the CrimSon Slippers. By R. A. (Hodder' and Stoughtrin. .11:1. 6d.) - • The Spirit Murder Mystery. By Robin Forsythe. (The

Godley Head. is. 6d.) • . • • . , So I Killed Her. By L. 0. Mosley. (Michael Joseph. ,7s. Bd.) The Spider'i Touch. By Valentine Williams. (Hodder and Stoughton. 7s. 6d.)

The Island of Sheep. By John Buchan. (Hodder and Stoughton. is. 6d.) NONE of this month's murders stand out as exceptional of their kirid, but *they are on the whole a sound, workmanlike lot, and you get good value for your money whether you go digging with Mrs. Christie, electioneering with Mr. Propper, motor-boating with Miss TaYlOr, or merely try to keep cool like Mr.-Austin's dog-starred policemen.

I give. Mr. Austin first prize this month. Murder in Triplicate has the qualities of speed, suspense and horror well combined : its plot is diabolically' ingenious and leaves no

loose ends, while the solution is so simple that we feel it can only have been the heat which prevented us from discovering it. Mr. Austin writes in an impressionistic style and stands no nonsense from his characters. The detective, Lieutenant

Peter Quint, is a very different bag of tricks from his namesake of The Turn of the Screw, the most sinister figure in all

literature. Mrs. Valentine Merritt is found murdered in her summer-house : a tap nearby is running, and the tip of her

nose has been sliced off. Two more chameters meet,the same fate,- in each case to the accompaniment of running water and rhinotomy : whethei their noses have been cut off to spite their faces, the reader must find out for himself, but he Will sooner or later be led to the saine conclusion as Quint-;that no one could have committed the crimes!

If I were suspected of a murder (and was innocent), there is nobody - I would' rather have on -the Spot than -Aiey Mako. He is not only one of the most brilliant of fiction detectivei, but a good handyman, a lovable personality, and one who inspires immediate confidence. He also gives the long handle to disagreeable people in- the most agreeable way and properly knocks the cover off them. In The Crimson Patch we are faced by a threefold problem—why was the driver

of a long-distance 'bus replaced at the last moment by another driver ? Why are the inhabitants of -Skairet periecuting a perfectly harmless pair of young artists, Steve and Betsey Damon ? Who killed Rosalie Ray, the 'famous radio star, with a harpoon (of all things) in the Damons' best bedroom ? The book contains a thrilling manhunt, some ticklish naviga- tion in a fog-bound creek, and a display of Buffalo-Bill shooting by an apparently innocuous retired business man. The detection is a little involved and jumpy, and one vital piece of information is held back—though not directly by the author.

Murder in Mesopotamia is not one of Mrs. Christie's very best books—it would be impossible to produce a second A.B.C. Murders in the course of one year. Moreover, for once I tumbled to her villain, though admittedly by psychic

rather than logical methods. Her tale centres round a burial mound in Mesopotamia : it is told by Nurse Leatheran, who has been sent for to look after Mrs. Leidner, the wife of the chief archaeologist. Mrs. Leidner has received anonymous letters threatening her life ; but the handwriting of these letters bears a curious resemblance to her own, and no one knows whether she is in real danger or suffering from hallu- cinations. In due course a murder is committed, and the problem is—how could anyone get into the house from outside without being seen by people in the courtyard ? Mrs. Christie writes with her usual humour and economy, and Poirot is in good form. I feel, however, that too many of the discoveries are left to the end : and what does the author mean by " She wore a tweed coat and skirt made rather like a man's " ? - • When Tommy Rankin cage,- can be sure of solid

detection and plenty of thAls. If lus methods of dealing with suspects seem at times -rather unscrupulous, his author plays insistently fair. Thia:tifire we: r4 -plunged-inio. an of iii al parEies patrol the Streeli4 the Big Bosses are even more unpalatable than usual, and graft is fast, and furious, Reade, -:candidate :for;the pistri4 Attorncyship, whose " slogan" is "Rid Philadelphia of rackets,'] is shot through the window of a polling-booth while registering Iris vote. Two men are caught escaping in a car, and evidence is found on them which proves that one of Reade's rivals is deeply implicated .in ...the :racket that. Reade was workiii to expose. The case seems to be sewn up. But Rankin's Painstaking investigations lead him miles away before t.4 trim solution is discovered. Mr. Propper is rapidly qualifying for the title of America's Freeman Wills Crofts : like Crofts', he dismantles the haystack straw by :straw to discover the needle—and never bores us in the process.

The Corpse in the Crimson Slippers is, I think, Mr. Wallin& most successful case. It is somewhat slow-moving and contains One or two Minor improbabilities : but it is agreeably written and the characters are convincing. At Old Hallerdoir, the country house of Sir Thomas Gryiner, a'yOung scientist is found shot in circumstances that all point to suicide : ark explosion is heard ; before the smoke haS cleared await; several people are at his door ; the room is empty except for the dead man ; there is a gun in his hand and the case of a cartridge crushed underneath his body. Every detection* fan will realise at once, of course, that this must be murde* And murder it is—and a good deal more beside, including Wholesale forgery and some astute Secret Service work. ): Mr. Forsythe's book has many defects. Coincidence rife. Characters ',talk like _chill, textbooks on- sPirgualistili. The detectives indulge in 'a ifteetious badinage which range]; from the merely distressing to the positively vulgar. Till; Police leave it to an amateur to go through" the dead mail's papers, and until p. 197 they make no attempt to trace tge 'Movements of an automobile which is closely connected With both murders. Nor do I believe that any expert would be puzzled about the -type of poisoning involved and have:0 diagnose it as " some obscure narcotic poisoning." In spite Of all this,. I found The Spirit Murder Mystery quite readable

possibly because I have always had a yen for underground passages.

Mr. Mosley's plot is briefly stated. Durant Fletcher, popular crime-novelist, is driven by unfounded jealousy to Strangling his wife and throWing the guilt on a shod advertisement-writer with .whom she 'had. an affair befok her marriage. It is intended to be one of those grim, reali4 Shows—and grim it is, in more senses than one. The story is told by Durant Fletcher in the first person and an extra- ordinary clotted-melodramatic style—(" But always, Durant, every ounce of my affection was vested in you." Or worse

' Damn you ! ' she cried, ' you're sneering at me'.' ' We're on the boat-deck, darling. Don't make a scene." '') One has an uneasy suspicion that this style is as much air. Mosley's as Durant Fletcher's. But even if we give hikli the benefit of the doubt here, we cannot believe that Elizabeth would have married such a preposterous creature or thitt she would be with child by him for 'tenths without telling him.

All who dote on the sinister Clubfoot • fral :tarn eagerly to Mr. Valentine Williams' new novel. Jimmy Fane, sent to Germany on a secret mission, has diSappeared : the American Intelligence Service is involved,:and.lour musketeers —an Englishman, a German, a Frenchman and an American —set out to find Fane and recover the secret plans which a Japanese agent should have handed over to Min. It is a thoroughly international affair, with plenty of bloodshed, a strong love interest, and the usual disappearing act" by

Clubfoot'for finale:" ' ' - , . . ,

Mr, lliichan, „who had been, getting rather mystical and high-falutin.7 lately, makes . a welcome return to Richard Hannay and straight adventure. The ,Island of Sheep tells of a vendetta pursued against one Haraldsen by a gang of . crooks and " rootless intellectuals " (a typical Buchanism). The story opens on.a Norfolk marsh, where Hannay and his son—a nice lad and talented natural-historian—are out after

wild!duck : ends ctn; a Norlandsjsland,When:Haraidsen goes.berserk, attacks single-handed the gangsters and rootless intellectuals, and flings the arch-gangster :over a cliff.