A Poison Mystery

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 35, 11 February 1939, Page 10 (Supplement)

A Poison Mystery

A TYRANNICAL old lady dies just when her restoration to health after a long illness is being completed. The circumstances pointed to murder, and an examination showed that she had been killed by an overdose of morphia. Half a dozen people had ample reason for wishing her out of the way. Which of them had helped her through death's door? Or was it somebody else? These were the questions forced on Inspector Pardue, of Scotland Yard, by Dorothy Bbwers in "Postscript to Poison" (Hodder and Stoughton). It is a first novel, and the unfolding of the mystery shows that the publishers have unearthed a writer of very much more than the average ability, one who can create and maintain an air of mystery while playing fair- and giving all the facts and, at the same time, reveal a fine descriptive power coupled with the gift of character building. The complications so essential to a murder mystery are cleverly brought together, especially those concerned with the mysterious letters which, from a very fortuitous beginning, eventually sheet the crime home to-its author. -As a beginning it is a very fine effort, and Miss Bowers, when she learns to avoid some of the snares into which she ha 3 fallen, will, without doubt, become very popular among those who like their mystery well, .and brightly written.