Evening star., 1934-08-12

the windings of "The Crooked Lane"
to excitement and more excitement.
The technique Of the story is far su-
perior, shows much more attention TO
workmanship, than is the case with
most mystery stories. The whole plot
Is developed through series Of
parties, beginning with Party for q
Stranger" and ending with Farewell
Party" The first party brings to-
gether all the actors in the tragedy
and in a skillful way introduces them
to the reader About the famous
crystal dining table of Mrs. Caroline
Temple are seated Is guests. The
fourteenth, the guest of honor.
Karl Sheridan of the Criminalistic
Institute Of Vienna, Is AZ minutes
late. The hostess has not waited
for him, and after an abbreviated
greeting sends him to his seat, be-
tween "the prettiest girl in Washing
ton and the most outrageous woman
in America" Through the brilliantly
sophisticated conversation OF Sheridan
and his two neighbors, which Mrs.
Hart sustains remarkably, the identity
and social background of all the guests
are explained.
Before the party is over. Sheridan
has discovered that "the prettiest girl
in washington" Charity de Tessain-
court Stuart, daughter Of an emf
nent public man in the United States,
is at least very much interested in
Dion Mallory, almost pure Irish, and
second secretary at the British EN-
bassy" He has also progressed so
far in his acquaintance with her, on
the old foundation of some childhood
fellowship during the World War,
when his father was an Assistant
Secretary in the State Department
and his grandfather was the Austrian
Ambassador, that he has told her
about his famous little black bag con-
tanning his criine-detection equipment.
The bag is to be called into action
sooner than either of them dreams.
and Sheridan himself is to be forced
unwillingly into an investigation, out
side the law, almost in opposition to
the law.
News of the details of the supposed
suicide of slender, beautiful 19-year-
old Fay Stuart spreads about social
Washington without benefit of the
press, but X. Sheridan and Tess
Stuart have decided almost immedi-
ately that it is murder rather than
suicide which confronts them in the
black and silver night nursery, where,
curled up In the corner Of a love seat
is a childish figure in shimmering
green lounging pajamas. a figure that
will never move again. Fay was, her
sister tells X. Sheridan, like q little
hard, green fruit, so badly bruised
when it was small that before it had
a chance to ripen 1t was rotten down
to its core" She is dead, not subject
to investigation and pursuit, but per-
haps, after all, she is the real GRIM
inal in the case. The clues from
which Sheridan makes his tragic dis
covery are extraordinary-a note
tucked between the leaves of an un-
speakable novel, on the small table
another note, from which narrow
strip has been clipped; one egg
missing from half dozen in the re-
frigerator, an array of bottles in a
cupboard behind boo<shelves, on the
floor q bottle of hyoScine hydro
UIOfI1lQc, y SET Oh IudlaCkl1te dI1Q ldplS-
lazuli Backgammon markers and a
square of ruby-colored glass through
which a message in orange ink ON
postage stamp Is read. The lovely,
distraught Tess is, through Sheridan's
questionings, discovered TO be as well
informed on the subject Of various
poisons as Lucrezia Borgia herself.
In sustained interest, ingenuity and
style, The Crooked Lane fully
equals, If it does not ,surpass, The
Bellamy Trial"
VANISHING WILDERNESS. BY F.
r. La Monte and M. H. WEIGH. Il
lustrations by Capt. Vladimir Per-
f1ilieff. New York; Liveright Pub
fishing Co.
VISITS to the ZOO, stories Of ami
mails, pictures Of animals, real
pets and stuffed animals to play with,
all delight children. from the very
youngest to the most advanced age OF
sophistication. when they resent be-
ing called children any longer. That
Is why this book about animals, by
two authors connected with the Amer