DETECTION

Southland Times, Issue 23652, 29 October 1938, Page 14

DETECTION

HERE COMES THE COPPER. By Henry Wade. Constable, London. Price 7/6. SEND FOR PAUL TEMPLE. By Francis Durbridge. John Long, Ltd., London, through Whitcombe and Tombs. Price 7/6. THE GREEN TRIANGLE. By Hal Pink. Hutchinson, London, through Whitcombe and Tombs. Price 7/6.

Henry Wade’s latest book is a collection of well-written stories describing the adventures of John Bragg, an alert police constable with a “nose” for crime. In substance, of course, the book does not compare with “Ths High Sheriff,” Mr Wade’s last novel and one of his very best, put in a more limited field it succeeds admirably. Bragg has the gift of noticing things while on his beat. One day he noticed a bathroom window clouded with steam; another day it was a ham sandwich under a tree; and again, one night he noticed a lorry that was not lighted until it had turned out of a lane and into a main street. Each of these little singularities proved to be decisive evidence in the uncovering of a crime: had they not been seen and fioted the crimes might have gone undetected. But they were seen and noted, and they were the stepping-stones on which Police-Constable Bragg made his way into Scotland Yard. The stories cover his experiences in the London metropolitan force* and in a county Constabulary where he serves both in a rural district and in a county town. Bragg himself is a most likeable fellow: sharp and observant without being brilliant, pertinacious, and a useful hand in a fight. Time after time, by dint of looking for some criminal activity he finds it, and is able to pass the knowledge on to his superiors in time to foil the criminals. He is altogether too good an investigator to be lost: perhaps Mr Wade has in store a record of his adventures in the C.I.D.

“Send For Paul Temple” is the novel of a radio serial play which was presented by the British Broadcasting Corporation in April and May of this year. Like most serials, it is highly melodramatic and moves to a series of climaxes, each of which, no doubt, was the end of an instalment of the broadcast. As a novel, it becomes more than a little incredible and the rather hackneyed style in which it is written does not improve it. However, it certainly does not lack pace and excitement, and readers who look for these things can hardly fail to enjoy it. There is a well-sustained mystery, too, in the . uncovering of the master diamond thief, the Knave of Diamonds. Mr Pink is a new-comer to the field of detective fiction. The principal merit of his first book is that it is literally crammed with action. Every few pages (the average length of his chapters is only three or four pages) someone is done to death, poison gas is released, incriminating words are overheard or a shrouded figure runs across the garden. It is all part of the hunt for “The Green Triangle,” prince of criminals, who sees all, hears all, knows all—and always strikes first. The hunt is so fast that it is hard to put the book down, even though Mr Pink deals heavily in cliches; and the denouement is ingenious, if a little bewildering.