Evening star., 1935-07-10
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
CORNISH OF SCOTLAND YARD. BY
Ex-Superintendent G. w. Cornish.
Nour Vor1. Tho Moprpillon IN
Margaret Cermond.

form of "reminiscences of a man whose
long service in Scotland Yard embraced
q span of years that witnessed the COM
mission of some of the most eXtraordi-
nary crimes in English history and that
witnessed, also, the development Of the
science Of criminological investigation
and proof of guilt.
Superintendent Cornish entered Scot
land Yard as a recruit in 1895 at the
age Of twenty-one and was retired less
than two years ago after thirty -eight
and a half years of service. In writing
these memoirs of famous cases in which
he participated as detective he has
refrained from any elaboration for pur-
poses of dramatic effect and has told
his stories with strict regard for the
facts as circumstances presented them
and as investigation uncovered them.
Indeed, they need no touching up, for
they are dramatic, exciting or grueSome
enough in themselves, without any lite
rary embellishments.
The cases are unfolded in chrono-
logical order, beginning with the round
ing up of the garroting, or hold-up,
gangs in the Whitechapel district, to
which he was first assigned, and con-
cluding with the Burning Shed Mys-
terry" of January 3, 1888, which was
intended to cover the murder of Walter
Spatchett, and for which crime Samuel
James Furnace was convicted.
Numerous crimes of unsensational
character demonstrate the long, hard
hours of routine involved in the processes
of protecting society from the tncurably
lawless element of humanity that inhab-
its every large city, and in the upper
reaches of robbery on a grand scale,
wholesale graft. organized blackmail and
cold-blooded murder, Scotland Yard,
behind the scenes, is shown in action.
Among the cases which attracted the
attention Of the daily newspaper reading
nations of the world is the well-remem-
bered theft in 1918 of the famous neck
lace of sixty-one perfectly matched
pearls that had been sent from Paris
to London and that had been replaced
en- route by eleven Jumps of sugar Then
there is the inside story of the grotesque
find that in 1927 became familiar
through the press as the "Charing Cross
Trunk Murder" Included, also. are
accounts of the breaking up of the
famous wholesale turf fraud, the con-
viction of DR.. Harvey Crippen, the mur-
/ der of Norah Upchurch, of Lady White.
VI
| DR.. Angeles Zemenides and of the We'll
| ford Travis baby. The tracking down Of
| safe-breakers, blackmailers. motor BAN
| dts, gangs OF gunner, counterfeiterS and
| other varieties of criminals is told in
cases, each one q story in itself, and
more often than not the real detective
| runs into plots and counterplots more in
| tricate and more battling than those
hui tt,a fo ofoc cit inc oiY hot
| have made the mystery thrillers of
| fiction popular
MIR. PINKERTON GROWS A BEARD.
BY David Frome. New York: Farrar
& Rinehart.
Again the gray little rabbit of man
who has become favorite with mystery
novel fans steps into the world OF adj
venture. Not that he intends to when he
| arrives, after long and serious con-
| temptation, at the decision to close his
house in Golders Green and take lodg-
| 1ngs In Bloomsbury square to be nearer
the British Museum, for he wants only
| to study. But adventure attacks him,
overwhelms him and very nearly oblit-
crates him In an incredibly short time.
Mr. Pinkerton's friendship and asso-
Yard has inspired the little man to read
| about crime. He knows he can never
| be real detective, but wants very much
to be wise enough to be an intelligent
| companion to the man he idoliZeS when
on some future occasion the inspector
might permit him to tag along in an
| important investigation.
Moving into a new neighborhood gives
| the little man more courage than he has
been conscious of possessing. He decides
| to grow a beard. He is persuaded by
! Suave gentleman, who ScrapeS acquaint-
ance with him at the museum, to occupy
| the most luxurious apartment that he
| has ever seen. He is nudged by a
| woman carrying basket and discovers
| to his amaZement that the tired and
! dowdy creature is a man and that in
the process of fumbling newspaper the
| Objectionable impostor has deposited in
his pocket a tobacco pouch containing
blank piece of paper.
Soon afterward Mr.. Pinkerton Stumbles,
in pea soup fog, upon the body of
| murdered woman. He finds his Sumptu-
| ous new living quarters ransacked and
| wrecked. He sells an old suit, reeking
with moth balls, and wherever trouble
| breaks out when he is near the smell
| of moth balls is an accompaniment. He
senses plot that is far beyond his COM
prehenSion and endeavors to reach In
| Spector Bull, but failure meets every
| effort, and more murders and more ram
sacking and wrecking of property occur.
Meanwhile, Inspector Bull and Sir
| Charles Debenham are worried about
| Mr.. Pinkerton, for they know his capac-
| ity for getting into trouble, and they fear
| that he is somehow connected with the
series of deaths and damages He is.
Also, he is pretty desperate when they
finally find him. That he is saved from
murderer's bullet is a miracle for
which he has prayed and then given up
| hope. That he in turn saves a nation
Is a miracle even more unbelievable.
A truly delightful Pinkerton mystery
| in which the rabbitty little amateur
sleuth performs nobly and efficiently
against intangible and terrifying forces.
| X +
| SHIPS AFLAME! BY Jean TouSSaint-
Samat. Philadelphia: j. B. Lippin-
colt Co.
| THE LEFT HANDED PASSENGER. BY
Felix Rosenberg. New York: Double
day, Doran & Co.
Here are two tales of fire at sea, the
| former a demonstration of the genius
| of a young man whose scientific re-
| searches lead to the invention of an
extinguishing process that will make loss
| of life by fire at sea impossible, and the
second a novelized mystery version OF
| the MORO Castle disaster.