17 JANUARY 1958, Page 21

It's a Crime

Ellery Queen's Awards: 11th Series. Edited by Ellery Queen. (Collins, 12s. 6d.) Not the best anthology of crime stories ever published, but among the sixteen prize-winners, English and American, are some very, competent specimens, and one, Thomas Flanagan's 'The Customs of the Country,' set at the frontier post of a Balkan republic, is a little masterpiece of atmosphere, Character and tension. No bloodshed, no violence, but enormous suspense, ingenuity, and psycho- logical truth.