Evening star., 1935-03-20
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
Mnrnnraf Cnrmnnd
Margaret GermOnd.

BROKERS END. BY Louis Booth.
New York: Dodd, Mead & Co.
Too late by eighteen months to save
its stock and bond holders from ruin.
the brokerage firm of F. w. Strong g.
Company is forced into receivership.
The unhappy members of the board of
directors hear In silence on Friday
afternoon the reading by their counsel
Of the injunction granted TO the peo-
pie of New York against the company
which had successfully weathered va
rious financial crises in its time but
which was unable to survive the crash
that has for five years now kept busi-
ness and industry in a state of col
lapse.
On Monday morning Martin Hoyle,
treasurer of the corporation, is found
dead at his handsome mahogany desk,
with hole in his right temple, his
jaw in pool of blood on the other
wise spotless glass top Of the desk,
and his own automatic on the floor
beside his chair A slight slip in the
set-up soon reveals that what had
been intended to pass for unmistak-
able suicide is nothing less than mur-
der. Maxwell Fenner, investigator for
the receivers auditors officially and
criminologist on occasion, sees at first
glance that Hoyle did not die by his
own hand.
A few days later Anthony Wheeler,
quiet. elderly, inoffensive member of
the board of directors, is shot dead
while sitting on the rear deck of a
Jersey ferry. The two bullets which
ended his life were fired from the
same gun that had been used to kill
Hoyle. A well-written statement sent
to a New York newspaper contains
the confession Of an individual, who
claims to have been robbed by the
corporation and the threat that each
member of the firm will be slain in
time.
Winthrop Parness. whose love affair
with the wife Of Sigurd Strong has
become known to her husband, is
third to answer the call of death. In
an unlikely house in an obscure sec
ton of the city his body is found in
| a gas-filled apartment, but death
resulted from another cause. Death
by a different method indicates that
perhaps there is more than one Grim
iral. The writer of the confession,
! indeed, becomes so bold as to deny
having committed the third murder.
But is his second statement true, or
is it blind? Is the first one true,
or is the confession merely the crav-
ing of a maniac for the limelight? On
| the other hand, is the murderer a
member of the Strong firm, or an en-
ploye, or one of several frequent Wis
itorS TO the sumptuouS oftlces OF the
once successful corporation? And
how many more of the original eight
possible victims will meet death before
"Shorn" is trapped?
It Is a lively story, well set up
against the now familiar background
of big business. 1t is a Red Badge
mystery, with all of the thrills, the
speedy action and the absorbing in
terest which that distinctive imprint
implies.
THE BUDAPEST PARADE MUIR
DERS. BY Van Wyck Mason. New
York Doubleday, Doran g. Co.,
Inc.
The Budapest Express, speeding to-
ward the Austrian capital with dozens
of delegates to the new peace confer
ence among its passengers, is the
scene of the first of series of baf-
fling murders that threaten to wreck
| 1aa nd n tHrnvsr tho yxrorIl
into another armed conflict as well.
Sir William Woodman, eminent Eng
liSh pacif!st, carrying incriminating
evidence against munitions manufac-
turers, poison gas diStillerS, dye works
and other industries closely related to
the making of munitions, is slugged
and his murderer escapes as the train
stops at Gyor. Maj. Kilgour of the
British foreign Office and a corre-
spondent of New York newspaper
occupying another compartment in the
same coach, are first on the Job as
unofficial investigators Capt. Hugh
North Of the United States Army In
telligence, in from Italy, boards the
train as the murderer escapes and be-
comes Immediately involved in the
| search 1Or The criminal.
In Budapest the news of Sir Will
liam's murder creates a critical situa-
tion, and as other murders Of dele
gates and self-styled information seek
ers and news gatherers meet death
before the very eyes of their asso-
ciateS a near-panic SeiZes the popu-
lation, while those most concerned in
the peace conference suffer an acute
attack Of jitters. Attempts are made
on the lives of Kilgour and North.
both Of them escaping by only the
narrowest of margins from would-be
aSSassinS. And all because the pro-
fessional warmakers are determined,
each for his own particular profit or
salvation from disgrace, to gain pos
session Of the papers which Sir Will
liam was known to have been carry
ing.
Against the dazzling attractivencSs
OF life in Budapest story of interna-
tlonal intrigue is woven by Mr.. Mason
into a pattern of mystery and death
that is fascinating, logical and star
tlingly near the truth of the funda-
mental causes of the failures that have
made peace conferences the breeding
grounds for new wars.
x
THE YEAR BOOK OF THE HORSE.
Edited by Robert F. Kelley. New
York: Dodd, Mead g. Co., Inc.
This volume is the first of an an
nual publication planned by the Dodd-
Mead house for the enjoyment and
the information of the thousands of
devoteeS who follow the seasons ac-
tivities in all branches of horse sport.
1t contains stories and accounts of all
the outstanding events of the past
year in the non-professional horse
world, including polo, hunting, racing,
horse shows and steeplechasing. Sta
tisticS and details of the big matches
are recorded, with the ratings of the
players and ponies, and the chapter
on hunting covers all of the important
meets of the past year with the latest
news about the various dogs and
packs Steeplechasing in this coun-
try, the Kentucky Derby and the