6 APRIL 1956, Page 36

A MOST CONTAGIOUS GAME. By Samuel Grafton. (Rupert Hart- Davis,

12s. 6d.) A more successful, if less sophisticated, attempt than Mr. Robinson's to yoke satire and the sinister, is this tale of a simple soul of a reporter who goes native in the New York underworld. Sometimes funny, sometimes frightening; very read- able, and not quite like any other tale of murder, brutality and gambling I've ever come across.