Evening star., 1934-11-14
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
Margaret Cermond.

Margaret CermOnd.
THE CASINO MURDER CASE. BY
s. s.. Van Dine. New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons.
Another MASTERPIECE Of mystery
fiction is this latest Van Dine story
in which the superior mental equip
ment of Philo Vance is pitted against
the cunning Of q poisoner. Though
the entire layout Of the Casino
affair is less fantastic than in its
predecessors, the character and cir
cumstances Of the crime and its even
tual solution are quite as much be-
yond the unusual as Van Dine read
ers have come to expect.
The scene is laid In New York
City, and the action takes place In
the famous gambling establishment
Of Richard Kinkaid and in the home
Of Mrs. Anthony Llewellyn, his sister
and prominent social worker. Philo
Vance receives an anonymous letter,
In part as follows:
II am appealing to you for help
in my distress. I am also appealing
to you in the name of humanity and
justice. I know you by reputation,
and you are the one man in New
York who may be able to prevent a
terrible catastrophe-or at least to
see that punishment is meted out to
the perpetrator of an impending
crime. Horrible black clouds are how
! ering over a certain household in
New York. They have been gather
Ing for years, and I know that the
storm is about to break. There Is
danger and tragedy in the air.
Please do not fail me this time, al
though admit am q stranger to
you.
Il do not know exactly what Is
going to happen. II I did could go
to the police. But any official inter-
ference now would put the plotter on
guard and merely postpone the trag-
edy. wish I could tell you more.
but do not know any more. The
thing is all frlghtfully vague-it is
like an atmosphere rather than q spe-
ciflc situation. /" Whatever does
happen will be deceptive and untrue.
- All those involved are abnormal
and tricky. Don't underestimate them.
You have met young Lynn Llewel-
lyn-that much know-and you prob
ably know Of his marriage three years
| ago to the beautiful musical comedy
| star, Virginia Vale She gave up her
career and she and Lynn have been
living with his family. But the mar
riage was terrible mistake, and for
three years tragedy has been brew
ing. And now things have come to
a climax. I have seen the terrible
forms taking shape. And there are
others besides the Llewellyns in the
picture. There is awful danger for
some one, don't know just who. And
the time Is tomorrow night, Saturday.
Lynn Llewellyn must be watched, and
watched carefully.
There Is to be a dinner at the
Llewellyn home tomorrow night. =
The occasion is the mothers birth
day. After dinner Lynn Llewel-
lyn will 60 to Kinkaid's Casino to
play. He goes every Saturday night.
know that you yourself often visit
the Casino. And what beg of you
TO do Is to 60 there tomorrow
1
A badly written letter, and even
more badly typed, but Vance is suffi-
GENTLY intrigued by its whole contents
to go to the Casino, just to be on
hand in case anything of a tragic
nature should actually happen. He
CANDLES bit and chats with ac-
quatntances here and there, keeping
q watchful eye necessarily upon the
young man who is believed by some
one to be in danger. After a while
Lynn Llewellyn takes q seat at the
roulette table. INDUCES in some erratic
| playing and Is winning heavily when,
without any warning, he collapses.
Swift examination shows that he is
still alive, and quick medical atten-
ton puts him on the way to recovery
from dose Of poison. The only
thing that he has swallowed since he
came into the Casino is a drink or
dered from the bar and served at the
roulette table and q chaser of plain
water.
Before going home Vance calls on
District Attorney Markham, and as
they are talking the case over the
latter receives word that Lynn Level
lyn's wife is dead from poison. In
vestigation reveals that she died with
in q few minutes Of the time that
her husband lapsed into unconscious
ness at the Casino. Later on in the
same night Amelia Llewellyn, Lynn's
sister. is stricken while sitting in her
mothers room, and the symptoms
are the same as in the two other
cases. The water which was served to
young Lynn emptied the carafe in
Kinkaids private Office. The carafe
in Virginia Llewellyn's room was
found to be empty, and that in the
elder Mrs. Llewellyn's room was noted
by Amelia to contain only a glass
full when, becoming thirsty, she drank
all Of it.
| A choice collection Of condolences
in family of wealth and social posi-
ton, outwardly displaying a shiny
veneer of culture and refinement. and
inwardly hating or mistrusting each
other as well as the intimate friends
OF the household. The story moves at
swift pace to a climax that is the
most thrilling and dramatic that Mr..
Van Dine has yet devised.
BRINKLEY MANOR. BY P. G. Wode-
house. Boston: Little, Brown &
Co.
BERTHE and Jeeves are at II again
the former bent upon proving to the
world at large and to his intimates in
particular that he is a man of su-
perior intelligence and wisdom, and
the latter maintaining throughout the
period OF storm and stress which
threatens to wreck the partnership
the calm but firm attitude which has
made him the greatest valet of his
generation.
Not only Jeeves, but Aunt Dahlia
| and others have shown evidences of
doubt in the soundness of the Wooster
ability for clear reasoning and judi-
cial action, and BERTHE is righteously
| indignant at the slur cast upon his
ancestors and descending upon him
self. To make matters worse. Jeeyes
has made known in no uncertain