WITH THE DETECTIVES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 247, 17 October 1936, Page 30 (Supplement)

WITH THE DETECTIVES.

Under the title, "Xight Action," | Hodder and Stougliton have .published 1 another story of adventure from the pen of Sydney Park-man. Frankton, a man who'occupied a naval post in China, lias been sent home to be officially "axed." He loses a large sum of money to a j gang of crooks, and is left with hut a j moderate income and nothing to do. At the suggestion of an old naval friend | who is" a member of an unauthorised intelligence service financed by a patrio-1 tic man of wealth, he joins the service,) and .tells us of the young woman who later became his wife, the strenuous training he underwent to fit him for his dangerous work, how, in a variety of roles, he took part in tracking foreign enemies, and the part he played in staving ofT war with a European Power.. It is a rousing yarn, very good of its kind. "Murder in a Walled Town" (Evre and Spottiswoodc), by Katherine Woods.. The walled town is in Provence, and the people 111 the novel are chiefly Americans j who are living there because their, incomes have been reduced. When the I murder is committed there is an abun-1 dance of suspects, arid in tracking the! murderer down and following the love ; story of two members of the group the' reader has a satisfying entertainment. "Murder by Twenty-five" (Thornton Butterworth. by Clifton Robbins. The j cause of the death of a financier, found j in his car, seemed obvious enough: it j was carbon monoxide poisoning. His I secretary, who is also the secretary of a society, "Friends of the Underdog." is 1 not satisfied that the death was due to accident, and so it turns out, but only | after he has followed a series of clues j and encountered some queer people. A description of the organisation of a great charity ball in London is uncommonly] interesting.