Evening star., 1932-02-14

THE SWEEPSTAKES MURDERS. BY J. j.
Connington, author of Mystery at Lynden
Sands" etc. Bo5tcn: Little, Brown & Co.
THEY agreed upon the death Of one Of the
! lucky nine that ONLY living members of
the sweepstakes partnership which they had
formed should profit by any winnings that
might accrue from this sporting event A
decision calculated to head off legal action
in case of demise The plan was to reapportion
the prize among remaining members. A truly
sinister latency lay within this pan-but
these all honorable men, not even re-
motely likely to encounter temptation along
this particular way. Yet one Of them, tramp
ing alone in a camera hunt upon a certain
day, fell to his death a steep cliff. Not
long after another was killed when his car
Skidded upon wet road in a dark night. Ana
in no very long time another tragic ending
Well high time to lock around for the direc-
tor of this system of elimination for the pur-
pose of increased inheritance. And here
begins an ingenious and clever man hunt
which serves, finally not only to discover the
criminal but TO uncover. well certain weak
nesses of evidence that is generally considered
unassailable. For instance an alibi is no
proof Of innocence, provided the criminal be
clever enough and inventive enough. cAgain,
the photograph is no infallible recorder Of
fact. Here it proved to be a clever Ananias
of misleading. Once more. the expert on hand
writing and type writing turns out to be no
expert at all. plain dupe, instead. Inter-
esting and plausibly convincing that one,
under the spell Of the story and accounting,
envisages crime triumphant in its wickedness
and with no slightest fear of circun1vention
by the law and its agents. One works with
this adventure. Grows keen over its problems.
Good deep problems that do not open out to
a casual attention. The reader, along with
the detectives and crime specialists, must
work as they do the intricacies of this
puzzlng course in systematic manslaughter.
A skilhul and admirable invention which,
among its other attractions, comedies some
EAST OF SINGAPORE BY Sydney NJ Pas1r-
man. Philadelphia: Macrae-Smith Co.
A WRITER must feel pretty sure Of himself
to set of under such lure of title as thts
novel carries Well let us see about it. A long
way of, and not much known to the coms
monalty of busy homefolks, Singapore Il
opulent in mystery, strange peoples and ways,
adventures of exotic cast. place Of un-
believable things yet all of them believable by
virtue of daily need for miracle in q tedi-
ously authentic world Let us what Sydney
Parkman does for us by way Of Singapore,
and East.
He picks out an island a pearl island, 50
counted, belonging to France But France is
far away. The lure Of treasure is as demand
ing as is the need for daily bread More than
one ship of tramp-hke physiognomy and
furtive bearing had been many time
not so far away from this island of promise.
Just one of these concerns A yacht, tho
Peregrine. Its master, one Boris Slavensky.
Its crew, motley gathered hit or miss off the
docks of Singapore and otherwhere roundabout.
Jimmy Carfax among them. decent fellow,
out of work, far from home not SO much of q
H. .ol,t D,,S Y;vSax~a
served. That is what he is there for. Oh, yeG,
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