3 JUNE 1966, Page 20

The Piper on the Mountain, by Ellis Peters (Crime Club,

15s.). A beautifully contrived thriller, with one mystery within another. The Youthful Tossa and Dominic, well-rounded, whole characters, grip the reader's attention as they pursue the trail of a killer in the Low Tatras in Czechoslovakia : the scenery is memorably described, and one really longs to be able to hear for oneself the cascade of fluting, plaintive notes of the fujara played by the mys- terious Alda. Imaginatively done.

HESTER MAKEIG