CRIME RECORD

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29004, 19 September 1959, Page 3

CRIME RECORD

Patrick Quentin’s place among the select hierarchy of detective fiction writers is fully sustained in his latest book. SHADOW OF GUILT (Gollancz). In simple, excellent English he records the experiences of a dallying husband whose love affair with his secretary leads him into exceedingly deep water. The calm manner of Mr Quentin’s story telling—as calm as the manner of his detective—emphasises drama and vivid surprise as they occur. A young woman who keeps a hat shop in Sydney and who cares for a child sister has he r placid life disturbed by mysterious messages and telephone calls. The reader learns what is behind it all and is able to follow Helen Fowler intelligently as her cleverly-constructed story. HOLD A BRIGHT MIRROR (Angus and Robertson), builds up to climax and tragedy. In THE FIFTH CALLER, by Helen Nielsen (Gollancz) a doctor is murdered and her companion is found on a beach with her wrists slashed. The connexion seems obvious to the detective who interrogates the companion in’ hospital. B"* the woman’s integrity forces the detective to look further, and his search leads him not only to the criminal but to a better understanding of a tragic event in his own life. GOODBYE? SWEET WILLIAM, by Pat Flower (Ure Smith), gives the best value in plain killing encountered for a very long time. A successful novelist—a thoroughly obnoxious man—is found dead at a house party, and post-mortem investigation reveals three attempts to kill him, none of which succeeded. The mystery is solved by quiet pedestrianpaced inquiry by a likeable detective inspector from Sydney. “Wax Flowers for Gloria” promised that Pat Flower might be an acquisition to the list of able women writers of detective fiction; this book fulfills the promise.

Art Buchwald is one of America’s leading columnists, and is widely known for his very amusing “caviar” books. A GIFT FROM THE BOYS is his first novel. It homes in this section because the chief character is a Public Enemy of high rating who is deported to his native Sicily where, it transpires as an amusing story develops, the authorities are much more effective than the American police at dealing with errant Sicilians. The gift from the boys (a blonde dispatched to keep the boss company in exile) complicates and enlivens a very bright piece of tongue-in-the-cheek-writing.

THREE COUSINS DIE, by John Rhode (Geoffrey Bles, 256 pp.) is ingeniously conceived. Bertram Ryther is the autocratic director of a company which manufactures plastics. It is a family business, and his three nephews, Godfrey, Lionel and Henry are shareholders as well as active executives. On the distaff side are a number of other beneficiaries. Godfrey is found dead beside his overturned motor-bicycle in the garage of Bertram’s house with a bullet through his heart —a revolver close beside him. His end is ascribed to suicide following a wave of depression occasioned by

a rejected proposal of marriage. Lionel and Henry are lured by a false telephone message into visiting their uncle at a set time and Lionel is all but killed by a knife attack from an unknown assailant. Finally Henry meets his end in a motor accident, the circumstances of which are unusual though not necessarily suspicious. Superintendent Jimmy Waghorn, prompted by certain suggestions from Dr. Priestley during the latter’s brief periodical moments of w’akefulness, solves the mystery.