1 NOVEMBER 1957, Page 25

Burnt Offering. By Francis Richards. (Hutchin- son, 12s. 6c1.) Local

bigwig of small New England community is fried to a crisp and the quiet New York captain of police goes into the problem of who did it almost under his breath. 'Francis Richards' is a new name for old hands, the Lockridges, who deploy a clipped, allusive, stylish prose that reads like the late-lamented Reggie Fortune speaking in something of an Ivy League accent. This is American detection at its most urbane.