27 MARCH 1959, Page 28

The Chinese Gold Murders. By Robert Van Gulik. (Michael Joseph,

13s. 6d.); and Strike for a Kingdom. By Menna Gallie. (Gollancz, 12s. 6d.) Another of the Ming period stories of. the T'ang detective, adapted by a Dutch Orientalist who writes in English. Long, learned, and perhaps a little tedious, but makes a change. As does the Gwyn Thomas-ish Welsh mining-valley novel, set in the depressed 1920s, when who killed Dai Bloomers is disclosed soon after the prayer meet- ing at the Bethel..

CHRISTOPHER PYM