CRIME AND DETECTION

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30158, 15 June 1963, Page 3

CRIME AND DETECTION

The Valley and the Shadow. By W. H. Bruce. Heinemann. IM pp.

This detective novel is set in Wales, around the village of Bryncoed. The death of Eli Jenkins, pre-eminent local landowner and a “tightfisted” egoist, from the usual blunt instrument, caused no heartbreaks, except for Biggins, the Scotland Yard inspector assigned to the case. Suspicion naturally falls on Fferm Castell, who had been secretly courting Eli’s daughter Blodwen. Biggins is hampered in his investigation by two factors. First, it was felt just, that Eli met his death by violence. Second, many of the villagers are opposed to capital punishment. Even Evans, the competent village policeman, impedes the investigation. With typical country logic he maintains his secrecy by merely telling his wife what is happening. Mrs Evans has no ties of loyalty to the police force and consequently feels duty bound to inform" those concerned. In spite of his difficulties. Biggins solves the crime, only to And that a greater moral law triumphs. This is an excellent novel presenting a kaleidoscopic picture of Wales, the villagers and detective work. Particularly entertaining is the Welsh accent. With it are the philosphical “pearls” often wrapped up in delightful touches of humour, which enable us to think and feel with the villagers. This book is not merely fiction, it is an enveloping reality. His Father’s Ghost. By Stratford Davis. AbelardSchuman. 192 pp. The “ghost” in this thriller is a tape-recorded message left by the hero’s father after he has committed suicide in the United States under threat of being investigated by the McCarthy committee. It is clear that a German called Fischer drove Lloyd Hobart's father to his death and the quest to And out who Fischer is, takes Lloyd to the Isle of Ischia in the Bay of Naples. New Zealand ex-servicemen who visited Ischia during World War II will be disappointed at the poor description of the island and annoyed to find it populated. in this tale, with hordes of Germans, many of them ex-Nazis.

The ending, in which both the hero’s arch-enemies are tricked by him into killing each other is neatly contrived and credible in wide perspective if not in detail.

The Man Who Would not Swim. By Brian Edgar Wallace. Hodder and Stoughton. 222 pp. The plot in this thriller is ingenious but the solution becomes obvious enough for the reader to be annoyed by the obtuseness of hero and heroine. Sir Emlyn Drewl, Britain's Minister of Foreign disappears mysteriously, leaving a plain trial into Spain, He behaves in Madrid in a manner that upsets Spain. Britain, the diplomatic corps and Sir Emlyn’s daughter Anne, who has the “flawless beauty of a perfect diamond, dazzling and faultless.” This compulsion to use cliches slows down the pace, but there is plenty of action. The son of Edgar Wallace lacks his father’s gift of economy in the use of words.