Evening star., 1933-11-10
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
Margaret Cernlond.

MURDER DAY BY DAY. BY Irwin 8.
Cobb: indianapolis: The Bobbs-
Merrill Co.
One Of Americas foremost humorists
and story-teDers has gone virtuous"
and written a full-fedged mystery novel.
In explaining this departure from his
usual type Of narrative, Irwin Cobb
admits to an overwhelming sympathy
Tor the down-trodden mystery story
fan who has suffered from an overdose
Of silly clues and intellectual, scientific
deductions. He says that he recognized
this sorry figure Immediately as the
Forgotten Man who few months ago
received so much oratorical attention,
and his compassion for the poor wretch
induced him to endeavor' to give this
flreslde armchair sleuth genuine New
Deal. So he wrote Murder Day by
Day in style which is guaranteed to
DC on the level" giving the reader
every opportunity to identify the Grim
inal without the mental gymnastics of
a super-extra-psychoan or the
encyclopaedic knowledge of the Brain
Trust.
The story misses being a one hundred
per cent New Deal in only one detail,
and that Is that the same tactics en-
gagged in by the criminal were applied
by at least one previous author to a
man who committed a string Of mur-
tders and almost escaped the conse-
quences OF his deeds. In all other
respects, the New Deal is as good as
Mr. Cobb promised 1t would be, for 1t
has countless thrills and moments of
intense suspense and there are surprises
and startling events with every new
situation. The cards are all on the
table, as the author intended they
should be, SO that the reader has ample
opportunity, If sufficiently smart in
simple deduction, to convict the guilty
person or persons without taking a
scientific course in criminology.
In the boathouse Of an attractive
estate on Long Island two men are
found dead. One has been unmis-
takably murdered. The other appears
to have died from natural causes, due
to fright or shock. The murdered man
Is Uncas Cresap, owner CT the estate,
and from all accounts an utterly
despicable character. The other Is
| wong Gee, Chinese servant of the mur-
dered man, whose normal behavior Is
as strange and incomprehensible as his
devotion to his master.
UncaS Cresap was q wealthy man
whose past was believed to have been
as 1nglor1ous as a mans could be. He
was miserly, eccentric, contemplate and
morally beyond the pale Of decency. His
untimeiy passing is apparently well
| coined by everybody who knows him
The Chinese servant had been of no
particular consequence to any one ex-
cept his master, and his passing into
the abode Of his celestial ancestors was
an occasion OF no general concern.
But murder Is murder, no matter how
richly the victim has merited that form
OF punishment, and besides, practically
every person who had any contact with
Uncas Cresap had good reason for
wanting to kill him. His stepbrother,
GILBERT Redd, who lives on an adjoining
estate, had every reason to despise and
distrust him. Florence Dane, niece of
the murdered man, who had been his
housekeeper and hostess, both feared
and hated him, though she was the
natural legal heir to his fortune. Other
members Of the household consisted of
Della, the cook; Hawley Verify, general
outdoor overseer and handy man; Greta,
the waitress; Hilda, housemaid and per-
sonal maid to Miss Dane; Olsen, the
chauffeur, and Manuel Sabine, a gro
tesque dwarf of perhaps Spanish and
| Mexican blood, whose attachment to
Cresap had been as mystifying as that
| of the Oriental All of them, except the
latter, had more reason to hate than
10 love or even respect the master Of the
house.
In summing up this assortment of
] individuals, Private Detective Patrick
Percival Bray, retired member of the New
York Homicide Bureau, describes the
| aggregation as zone young lady from
| the South, one local Yank, one Dutch
gal in the dining room and one Harp
lady in the kitchen, at least two Scan
dahoovianS, a sawed-off half-breed
Greaser-Injun freak and a sick Chink.
And IN the Summer time, just for good
measure, q Chimney and Bohunk." Al
most a League Of Nations committee,
and every member with an AK to grind
Besides there Is Gregory Thorpe,
nance OF Florence Dane, who disappears
| Immediately after the murder, and
/ transient pair OF rum-runners whose
presence in the boathouse shortly be-
fore the murder adds another possibility
to the list Of suspects.
Cresap has been murdered by a blow
between and above the eyes No weapon
is found, and the nature of the wound
is Of such a peculiar character that iden-
tif1cation of its size and shape is as
much of a mystery as Is the person
who welded 1t. Complete examination
OF the remains Of Wong Gee leads to
the verdict of death from natural
causes, as there Is no mark of violence,
and the body Is In spch q position as
to indicate apoplexy, induced by extra
ordinary fright plus the constitution of
a drug addict.
On the day preceding the murder
practically every one Of the people men
toned had engaged In a quarrel with
Cresap over one thing or another. He
detested Gregory Thorpe and had that
day threatened to make a new will
cutting his niece entirely off from in
heritance If she married against his
| will. Both she and her fiance had seen
| him and had words with him. The
rum-runners, the servants, Gilbert Redd
and even a neighbor or two had been
provoked to the point Of wishing him
dead. even If all Of them had not pos
| sessed definite desire to kill him
some OF them were possessed Of that
desire, and made no secret Of it, thereby
adding to the complications which be-
set the investigators from start to
| finish.
Miss Dane knows that Thorpe could
not have slain her uncle, but his dis
appearance fills her with a nameless
dread. Redd also believed that Thorpe
is not guilty, but why did he run away?
Sabine plainly holds some grim secret
within his ugly, repulsive figure, but
why does he refuse to reveal it? And
what Is his motive In definitely trying
to accuse the mistress of the house?
There are times when it seems possible
that Detective Bray himself is involved,
but tnasmuch as he had no acquain-
tance with the victims, what could have
been his motive?
Well, it is almost impossible not to
suspect every individual connected with
the story before 1t has developed very
far, but as Mr.. Cobb Intentionally laid
| all the cards face up on the table it
should be easy to name the criminal
without too much concentration. And
that Is where the skill and ingenuity of
the famous story-teller reaches high
| mark. It Should be easy, but it is not.
Kettle Pond and its immediate vicin-
ity Is an ideal location for the type of
mystery propounded, and it can be truth