CRIME AND DETECTION

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26639, 26 January 1952, Page 3

CRIME AND DETECTION

Neck and Neck. By Leo Bruce. Victor Gollancz Ltd. 224 pp. Mr Bruce’s Sergeant Beef, retired detective-sergeant, is a delightful character. Here he is called upon to solve*the mystery of the death of a maiden lady. Since a number of persons could benefit financially from her death and only one has what appears to be a cast iron alibi, the case presents a pretty puzzle. Sergeant Beef takes it all very nonchalantly and amusingly, and of course eventually sorts out the murderer. Mr Bruce is as usual, ingenious and entertaining. Lilies in Her Garden Grew. By Stophen Ransome. Victor Gol- " lanes Ltd. 224 pp. The author of "The Deadly Miss Ashley” has produced another firstclass thriller. Schyler Cole and his friend Luke -Speare. of the Cole Detective Agency, are again called upon to discover a murderer. The murdered man is far from being a lovable character, but that is no real reason for killing him. However, killed he is, and Luke Speare, handicapped by the misguided efforts of Schy, who has a nice line of patter, gets to the bottom of it, but not before another murder has been committed. Terror lurks in the background throughout this fasVmqving and entertaining story. What Rhymes with Murder. By Jack lams. Victor Gollancz Ltd. 220 PP. Before Ariel Banks, eccentric British poet and great lover, is murdered while on a lecturing visit to a small American city, much dirt has been stirred up by the “Eagle,” a product of the worst type of yellow journalism. Youthful news editor of toe rival “Record,”. Stanley Rockwell (Rocky to you), who tells the story, finds himself well mixed up in the murder, even to the point of becoming a 'suspect. The denouement is perhaps a little thin;- but that can easily be forgiven, since the author has given us one magnificent character in Mrs Pickett, social editor of the “Record.” who solves the mystery, arid a lively, readable story. Night Man. By Allan Ullman. Victor Gollancz Ltd. 222 pp.

This is a thriller rather than a detective story. The action is tense and gripping and it remains that way to the tragic, bitter end. The author is a master of sustained suspense. In OPERATION PAX (Gollancz, 304 pp.) Michael Innes returns to Oxford, the scene of his memorable "Death at the President’s Lodging,” and to the detective of that book—John Appleby, now Sir John Appleby, an assistant commissioner at Scotland Yard. This story ranges wider than “Death at the President’s Lodging,” though pictures of academic life and academic conversation recur. However, the outstanding character is the ineffectual,' drifting crook, Routh, whose small, cunning probings cut into something mueh too big for him. who have looked to Michael Innes for a worthy successor to “Death at the President’s Lodging” may feel he has provided it for them xn “Operation Pax.”

HIT AND RUN, by Vaughan Kathrens (Andrew Melrose,-256 pp.), is a first-rate yarn about three characters, a Cockney spiv, a Pole, and a negro from Trinidad, who plan a mail robbery which leads to murder and a train crash. The antecedents of the three principals are neatly interpolated into the contemporary story; a thread leading each to a pre-destined end is kept clearly in Sight. The contemporary story gives graphic insights mto the underworlds of Manchester and London, and the subsidiary stories record widely different facets of life. The piece about the Calypso singer in a Trinidadian negro setting is an unusually good example of straight story telling underscored with tragic undertones that are felt by the reader. Nancy Spain's NOT WANTED ON VOYAGE (Hutchinson, 208 pp.) is a delightful change in detection-fiction fare. Written in this author’s wellknown extravaganza style, the story tells of doings on a pleasure cruise. A touch of madness runs through the whole thing, and if at times the reader feels that Miss Spain is guying the whole detection story writing business there will be no disputing that the result is entertaining. There is much amusing conversation of the non sequitor and- flying off at a tangent type. DEATH COMES TO THE REHEARSAL, Robert Sharp (Hutchinson, 228 ppj, is a story of murder in a back-stage setting. The author is well informed about the theatre and theatrical characters and writes we’l about them. His Inspector Punter is one , of the detective-fiction Scotland Yard men of whom the reader does not quickly tire. The story, which has both crime and theatrical interest, is neatly constructed. Mr Sharp has produced a thriller that will thoroughly satisfy most addict*.