16 NOVEMBER 1956, Page 23

It's a Crime .

DEAD MAN'S FOLLY. By Agatha Christie. (Collins, 12s. 6d.) Snip, snip, snip, and the pasteboard characters are shaped; a tug at the strings and they conform to type—or stereotype; the quickness of the hand deceives the eye, and there you are at the last chapter, with Monsieur Poirot explaining it all. How slick and self-assured Mrs. Christie is, and how old-fashioned—even to the country- house setting, the game of 'Murder,' the oracular yokel, the dubious butler, and the shoals of red herrings.