THE THREE TAI'S. By Ronald A. Knox. (Methuen. 7s. 6d.)—Father
Ronald Knox in The Three Taps has kept pretty well to the rules, laid down by bins in Sanctions : A Frivolity, for the writing of detective stories. There are no secret passages, no Chinamen ; the criminal—if, indeed, there is one—is mentioned in the first five chapters, and no hitherto undiscovered poison is used. For all that, the wits of the reader will be challenged to the full if this subtly woven mystery is to be solved. Mr. Mottrum, a middle-aged potentate of a large manufacturing Midland town, the proud possessor of an Euthanasia policy with the Indescribable Insurance Company, is discovered gassed in his bedroom at the " Load of Mischief." The door is locked on the inside, and the main tap of the gas-bracket is turned off. The problem to be solved is this—if the deceased committed suicide, how could he have turned off the gas when its deadly work was done ? On the other hand, if it was a case of murder, how could the murderer have left the door locked on the inside since the windows were barred and there was no other exit from this ill-fated room ? Scotland Yard supports the theory of murder and the private detective employed by the Indescribable, that of suicide ; for, in the event of suicide, no insurance benefits are recoverable. At one time a kind-hearted schoolmaster is suspected of having committed the crime, at another the barmaid's young man, at another, incredible though it may seem, the Catholic Bishop of Pulford I The story is written with the humour and spontaneity which one expects from Father Knox.
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