24 AUGUST 1956, Page 20

GUEST IN THE HOUSE. By Philip MacDonald. (Herbert Jenkins, 10s.

6d.) The hero is Lieutenant-Colonel the Honourable Ivor Dalgleish St. Pelham St. George, VC, DSO, and the old soldier servant stiffens to attention when he speaks, even in California. A nauseatingly sweet child completes the picture : this is what a British writer of crime stories turns out when he is thoroughly acclimatised to the idea of what California expects from a British writer of crime stories. And the sad thing is that it is turned out with the professional touch of the writer who once delighted us with The Rasp.