12 JULY 1957, Page 34

The Case of the Russian Cross. By Christopher Bush. (Macdonald,

10s. 6d.) This, the fiftieth novel about Ludovic Travers, his detective agency, and his chum from the Yard, is reassuringly like the other forty-nine, and concerns itself, sedately enough, with blackmail, theft and murder. Read- ably solid, carefully plotted, set in London, and as thick, flavoury, and slow to plod through as a local pea-souper.