Evening star., 1937-02-03
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
BY MARARET GERMOND.


novel a name descriptive Of the most
significant and the most impersonal fac
tor relating to the untimely death of
woman who has been awarded the major
American prize in literature and who, at
forty, has become engaged to an eminent
New York physician. A door, the least
token of personality in any house, holds
the key to the murder.
Karen Leith is an oddity in the Amer
ican scene She has for the most OF her
life lived in Japan and become more OF
an Oriental than an American in her
tastes and customs. She is tiny, fragile
specimen Of humanity, living almost in
seclusion in an old house on Washington
Square, wearing Oriental costumes, con-
tinuing the Japanese household customs
and turning out unbelievably beautiful
novels. From the appearance of the prim
exterior no one would suspect that bit
of Japan has been transplanted in an
old section of New York and that the
old house and It's garden are as Oriental
as the woman who owns them. A Japa-
,nese woman servant and a Loo-choo jay
complete the setting.
DR.. John MacClure has known Miss
Leith for many years. He is fifty-two, a
widower and well-stocked with the ma
terial goods of this world. He is con-
siderably more interested in his profess
sion than he is in his f1ancee or in his
grown daughter, though he is sincerely
devoted to both of them.
Ellery Queen is one of large number
of guests invited to one of the very rare
receptions held by Miss Leith for the
admirers and fans who are constantly
seeking to win the favor of the writer
whose novels have won international
fame. Shortly after the party DR.. Mac
Clure is persuaded by his adoring Eva,
as well as by Karen, to take a vacation.
He goes abroad and by a strange CO.
incidence he takes passage for home on
the same steamer by which Mr.. Queen
Is returning from a trip abroad. While
in midocean DR.. MacClure receives word
that Karen Leith has been stabbed to
death. He engages Ellery Queen i'm
mediately to investigate and when they
arrive in New York they find that many
peculiar things have happened.
For one thing evidence indicates that
Eva is the only person who could pos
Sibly have killed her fathers fiancee. She
is discovered in the room with the dead
woman by a strange brown man who
suspects her and who at the same time
seeks to protect her from accusation.
Inspector Queen, already on the job, sus-
poets her, as do the members of his
homicide squad. Even her own iance
believes her to be guilty. And it is
surely true that many a victim of the
law has been convicted and punished
upon less convincing evidence. The
younger Queen, however, is doubtful, and
the secret of the locked door between
the room in which Karen Leith died and
an upper room which no one has ever
dared open is the focal point of his
Investigations.
The brown man proves to be an in
vestigator also, who knows all that the
police know and considerably more.
which he refuses to divulge. And so the
case becomes most complicated as 1t
races along to one of Ellery's conclusions
based upon cold logic But for the first
time perhaps, in the Queen novels there
is disappointment in more than one
respect Several of the characters are
too far below par to be convincing. Eva
is too dumb and weepy to win the ad-
miration or the sympathy of anybody.
And in the solution of the problem FL
lery Queen is himself guilty of the same
sort of crime for which he brings his
culprit to book. His final act Is just not
up to the standard that Queen readers
have come to expect.
THE WOMEN OF THE CONFEDER-
ACY. BY Francis B. Sinlkins and
James w. Patton.
RICHMOND HOMES AND MEMORIES
BY Robert Beverly Munford, jr.
Two books from the Garrett g. Massie
house of Richmond, Va, deal with sub
jects which in the past few years have
come to the forefront with the revival OF
interest in places and in the people who
were prominently identified with one of
the most dramatic eras in the history OF
the Nation Many volumes have been
written about the great men and women
who participated in the major events OF
the nineteenth century in America, but
for many years little enthusiasm was
exhibited in other parts of the country
concerning the restoration and preServa-
tion of the mellow beauty that was
characteristic of the Southland, and it
would seem that too few people were
interested in the fantastic experiences
of the families whose capacity for cour-
age and endurance proved equal to the
demands made upon them for writers
to delve into facts instead of romancing.
Outstanding among these history
makers of the last half of the century
were the women of the Confederacy.
from whom hardship. suffering and
sacrifice were exacted in measure far
beyond the supposed limit Of human en-
durance. Yet they accepted the chal-
lenge and fought as valorously in their
own field behind the line of battle as
did their men folk at the front.
In compiling this story of the hun
dreds of women who gave their utmost
in the struggle for the survival of prin-
ciples in which they believed, 1t has been
the task of the authors TO separate
from the voluminous mass Of tradition
and romance that has grown up about
| the activities of these women the true
stories of the part they played in the
conflict and their efforts to conform to
the readjustments accompanying the era
of reconstruction. Great care has been
exercised in the collection of material
| from those women who are now living
and from the letters and memoirs Of
those who have died.
Humor and pathos, triumph and
| tragedy all have a place in the Syste-
matte and authentic compilation now
available to all who would know more
about the women who knew war at