Evening star., 1935-05-01
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
Margaret Cermond.

As the midday airliner from Le
Bourget to Croydon rose from the
flying field and nosed toward the Eng
lish Channel only one Of the twenty
five persons on board knew that the
plane carried an unseen messenger OF
evil and that death would strike swift
ly before the plane reached its des-
tination.
There were ten passengers in the for
ward carriage Of the Prometheus and
eleven in the rear car, including Jane
Grey and M. Hercule Poiret. Two pilots
and two stewards made up the ships
company. A glimpse into the minds
Of these eleven rear-carriage travellers
reveals that most of them were In
trouble.
M. Poirot had cast an all-seeing eye
over the group and directed his atten-
ton to Jane Grey. She was pretty,
and he wondered why she was so de-
termined not to look at the attractive
young man In blue pull-over who
was sitting directly opposite her. Air
sickness. however, soon caused him to
lose interest in everything except his
own misery.
Jane Grey was enjoying to the full
the thrill of her second flight, but not
to the extent of forgetting her de-
termination not to look at the young
man, whose presence was a bit excit-
ing even though it made her uncom-
Portable. She had bought an Irish
| +tA1ro l.
taken a vacation from her beauty
parlor job and gone to lie Pinet, where
for ten days she had gratified her desire
| to indulge in the gay life about which
SO many of her customers had talked.
Now it was all over and she was on
her way home, and sitting opposite
her was the young man who had
| figured in an unusual incident at the
roulette table. II there was to be any
acknowledgment of acquaintance it
/ must come from him. So Jane obSti-
nately looked out of the window and
thought of her vacation experiences
and pleasures.
Norman Gale was thinking Of the
roulette incident, and also that the
young lady was really pretty. He was
sure that she remembered him and
with slight feeling of excitement he
wished she was not so determined to
avoid him.
Across the aisle the Countess of Hor-
bury was thinking: What shall I
do? It's the hell Of mess. There's
only one way out that I can see. II
only I had the nerve Can I do it?
Can I bluff 1t out? That cat,
Venetia Kerr, being here makes it
worse. She always looks at me as
though were dirt. Wanted Stephen
for herself. What shall I do? I've
got to make up my mind. The old
hag meant what she said"
The Honorable Venetia Kerr was
thinking of Lady Horbury: Little
tart! That's what she is. Poor old
Stephen! II he could only get rid Of
her!"
Sitting beside M. Poirot was Or.
Bryant, lovingly caressing a flute and
| thinking: 'I can't decide. simply
cannot decide. This Is the turning
point OF my career" He reflected also
that perhaps in music there would be
some escape from the cares which
burdened his soul
| In another seat M. Dupont and his
son were engaged in an animated dis
cussion of prehistoric pottery, and
one noticeably restless passenger, a
writer of detective fiction, was men,
tally working out complicated alibi
for professional purposes. Sitting be-
hind Mr.. Clancy was Mr.. Ryder, think
ing: "I'll have to keep my end up,
but It's not going to be easy. I don't
see how I'm going to raise the dibs for
the next dividend. II we pass the
dividend the fats In the fire"
A wasp buzzing around the sand
wiches and coffee annoyed several Of
the passengers until it was neatly
killed by Jean Dupont.
In the end Of the car another pas
senger. a large, homely woman, had
ceased to think. She appeared to
have fallen asleep, but the unseen
passenger had struck with swiftness
and sureness. She was dead.
And from this assortment Of sus-
poets another Agatha Christie murder
mystery Of intense excitement moves
to the inevitable surprise solution
with the unerring logic of NJ Poirot.
himself a suspect, preventing the
heads of police of two nations from
committing the objectionable sin of
allowing the criminal to escape. 1t Is
a splendid piece Of work, interesting,
romantic and satisfying.
SHADOW OF DOUBT. BY Arthur
Somers Roche. New York: Dodd,
Mead g. Co
for Sim Sturdevant. Everything had
gone wrong from the moment he told
the woman he loved that her latest
screen appearance had been a flop. 1t
was not the beautiful popular actress
that Sim had loved from the
beginning of their acquaintance,
but the splendid-souled woman he
knew Trenna Plaice to be. He
understood her highly tempera-
mental nature and had not minded
particularly the cyclonic outburst that
followed his statement Of the failure
Of her picture and his offer of a
radio contract. He was deeply hurt
when she flung at him the announce
ment that she was to be married the
next day, though If she loved another
man he could accept his defeat and
wish her happiness. But he was
totally unprepared for the startling
news that the man of her choice was
Len Haworth. wealthy clubman and
Broadway playboy Of notorious ILL
repute.
Leaving Trenna's apartment, Sim
walked to the 'Merrygoround," and
signed up Inez Johnson, star of that
place of entertainment, for the radio
proposal that Trenna had turned
down. While engaged in conversation
with Inez a rowdy group. including
Lisa Bellwood and Haworth, had
entered the cabaret, and Haworth had
come to Sims table, made himself
generally Objectionable and then made
an insulting remark about Trenna.
Sim had knocked him down. There
had been no fight. Haworth had stag
gered back to his table and in q few
moments he and his companions left
the place. Sim had wanted to take