15 MAY 1959, Page 28

Two Studies in Crime. By Yseult Bridges (Hutchinson, 21s.) Courvoisier,

the Swiss valet, stripped to the skin to avoid bloodstains when he murdered Lord William Russell in 1840. Yseult Bridges believes that William Herbert Wallace did the same to murder his wife in 1931. The Court of Criminal Appeal that quashed Wallace's conviction certainly did not clear him of sus; picion. Miss Bridges is an'unusually slipshod an°, graceless writer, but the rattle of bromides and clatter of cliches do not drown the earnestness with which she argues Wallace's guilt, and although Fowler would squirm at her construc- tions, students of crime will appreciate her re- telling of two true murder stories, and her, contribution to the critical literature on the great classic mystery of our time.

CHRISTOPHER PY°