Evening star., 1937-09-01
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
BY MARGARET CERNOND.
OCTAGON HOUSE BY Phoebe Atwood
Taylor. New York: w. w. Norton &


Taylor. New York: w. w. Norton &
Co., Inc.
Asey Mayo, back in Wellfeet after two
months OF vacationing, finds Cape Cod
all astir over New Deal monstrosity
inflicted upon the sleepy town of Quano-
met and called post Office. After hear
ing twenty~eight different descriptions
OF the building and its mural, Asey de-
cides to 60 over and take look for him.
self. The grand opening had taken place
the day before. but one gala occasion had
not satisfied Quanomet and its neigh
boring population that the pink granite
steps. chromium pillars, strangely barred
easements and the amazing mural were
not optical illusions that may have faded
overnight. Crowds still milled about the
building in the sort Of temper that
eventually led to riotous disorder. A
placard bore the inscription that the
architecture was EARLY Colonial Modi-
fed" One look convinced Asey that the
monstrosity was out-and-out repeal. In
side the building a crowd was gazing
with unbelieving eyes at the extraor-
dinary mural which had been done by
the artist-husband of the former Marina
Frye, one of Quanomet's most unpopular
females.
Noting ASey's expression OF incredulity,
Pam Frye, younger sister of Marina in
forms him that everybody in town is
represented in the mural, and that
everybody is mad enough to commit
murder. And no wonder The descrip-
ton OF one panel reads like the memory
OF horrible nightmare Marina is be-
lieved to be responsible for the grotesque
caricatures spread across the paneed
mural by Jack Lorne.
After inspecting Quanomets new glory
Asey goes for a sail to rid his befuddled
brain OF the nightmare. He returns at
two O'Clock in the morning and finds Pam
Frye on his wharf waiting to tell him
that her sister has been murdered and
that she is being sought as the criminal.
Marina has been a bad one from child
hood and not even her family has reason
to love her. PANS story is that her
lifelong hope Of finding ambergris on
the beach had been realized that after
noon. but that Marina had come along
before she could plan a means of getting
it home, that they had engaged in a
quarrel and that bargain to share the
find had been the final result. The visit
to her sister that night was for the
purpose of getting the abmergris, but
her sister was dead when she arrived.
Marina had been stabbed with PANS
knife, and Aunt Nettie Hobbs, the
nelghborhood busybody. was telling any
body who would listen that she had seen
Pam do the deed.
Pam is a courageous girl, doing her
utmost to maintain herself and her
father by taking paying guests at Octa-
gon House advertised as an "impossiblv
lnconvenient house, with no modern
Improvements" Tim Carr and his
grandmother are new guests who, it de-
velops. knew Marina too well in DAYS
gone by. Marina and her playmates are
a nlgh-lVlng, extrayagant lot, interested
only in their own pleasures and in money.
Jack Lorne Peggy Boone, Roddy Strut,
the town plumber, an aviator, a red
Persian cat named Emma Goldman, a
parrot named Toots and dozens of strik-
ing clocks enter into the tale of solving
couple of murders by deciphering the
riddle OF the mural and seeking the
ambergris, which disappears from Octa-
gon House after it is believed to have
been safely hidden there.
Lieutenant Hanson. DR.. Cummings, svl
Mayo and his wife and other neiehbor-
hood characters who are familiar to
Mayo fans give the newest Cape Cod
mystery the fresh humor and genuine
excitement that are now expected from
Phoebe Atwood Taylor.
TENANT FOR DEATH. BY Cyril Hare
New York: Dodd Mead e. Co.
Here is first story that merits the
distinction of the red badge recommended
ton of the Dodd- Mead house. 1t in
wolves the murder of the head of a
shady brokerage corporation in the house
OF an eccentric whose brief sojourn in
Daylesford Gardens is attended by
mystery
Lionel Ballantine head of the London
q Imperial Estates Co., Ltd, disappears
on the eve of the collapse of the business
which was believed by most people to be
Hourlshlng and to be securely anchored
upon substantial foundations. At the
same time Mr.. Colin James. the mysteri-
Gus tenant of No. q Daylesford Gardens,
vacates the premises before the end of
MS lease and two young men employed
by an estate agency handling the prop
erty are sent to the place to take an
inventory of the furnishings belonging
to the owner. And coinciding with these
events is the release from Maidstone
Prison OF John FanshaWe after serving
long term for financial crimes COM
mitted by Ballantine, for which he and
others were tried and sentenced while
the man who was guilty remained free.
The two young men sent to inspect the
vacated house find the body of Ballantine
and notify the police When Inspector
Mallett OF Scotland Yard is called on the
case he finds plenty of evidence that
any number of people had motives for
killing the man, but very few clues that
point to the guilt of several likely sus-
poets. Jackie Roach, smart and likable
newsboy with an ear for gossip and
an eye for detail, furnishes the only i'm
mediate clues to the identity of the
mysterious tenant in Daylesford Gardens,
and Inspector Mallett has reason to
believe that one of the two young men
who discovered the murder knows con-
slderably more than he is willing to tell.
The death of young Harper's father had
been attributed to the wrecking of his
fortune by Ballantine and the crowd of
f1nanciers who had been ruined by his
crooked dealings, circumstance which
makes various moves of that young man
appear out of order when murder is
being investigated.
Inspector Mallett's method is to find
the tenant who disappeared from the
secluded and quiet Daylesford Gardens