The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1944-04-27

yarns of human nature ever pen
ned.
Wylie has outdone himself in this
volume, collection of yours about
the pair. You'll see the fellows in
a series of scrapes. many Of them IN
connection with Coast Guard auxil-
iary duties, lending a war atmos-
phere to the accounts.
A MURDER OR TWO
Set against the background OF
Colorado mining town, Murder
Mile High" by Elizabeth Dean
doubleday, Doran: so, is mys-
terry in which interest centers on the
who done it" angle, rather than
the usual ghoulish atmosphere ere
ated by haunted castles and creak-
ing stairs.
Plot unfolds with the arrival in
Gold City of Emma Marsh, who
visits her friend Mary during the
latter's stay in town as star singer
of the annual operate summer fes-
tival. Two sudden deaths, pro-
nounced accidental" by the local
police, start the chain of events
which lead our heroine Emma into
the perplexing circumstances created
by her self appointed role as anna
teur detective.
A demented spinster, a suspected
Nazi spy, ong-forgotten tombstone,
and hidden radio station all figure
prominently in adding to the read
er's confusion. But, the plot unravels
to an I'm unexpected conclusion to
the mutual satisfaction of both the
characters concerned and the
reader.
Murder a Mile High is recon-
Tended for an evenings dose Of
light reading-and guaranteed not
to produce nightmares.
Nothing AS Before" first novel
by Dorothy Sparks (Harper Bros:
$3.50, is essentially the story of a
small town in Illinois, and what
happened o it following the double
impact Of a murder and the OUT
break Of the war.
John Matthews, New York
newspaperman who fled the city
in anger, branded as radical, found
haven in Danfield, where he found
work on the Clarion" and was
happy, even though the tone of his
editorials won him enemies. He
assumed the name of Tim Duncan,
and met Helen Nicholson, the high
school English teacher with whom
he fell in love.
Ed Storeman, the local big -shot,
was a principal character until his
murder, but his influence lived af-
ter him and forms a part of the
changing fabric of the entire town.
PIGS AND POP
"Out of the Midwest. title of the
book, edited by John T. Frederick
(Whittlesey House: $3.50, Is rather
misleading, since you get the idea. If
you live in the east or west that
the stories contained therein aren't
of much interest to- you. But they
are! Any book containing stories
by Harold Titus. Ben Hecht, Ernest
Hemingway, and Thomas Hart Ben
ton, the artist, is enough Of Ameri-
cana to make the volume Of nation
wide interest.
Especially interesting is Titus
story built around the train dis
patcher who, to an ordinary lay
man, sits in a chair all day long
and talks to a telephone directing
trains hither and yon. But Titus
builds drama around his charac-
ter, showing how the dispatcher
worries himself sick In clearing
the path for a Boy Scout special
from Chicago into Michigan, side
tracking a slow freight, clearing the
track ia wrecked gondoda, and
engineering the capture of a run
away boxcar by fast-rambling
engine.
While that story is exciting, q
honey treatise on pigs is con-
tanned in Raymond Weeks story,
Arkansas" that deals with AL
phonse Jaccards hog by that
name. Nothing could be so dear
to AIS heart than his pig, and the
story comes close to being as close
to your heart.
Artist Benton's story, 1.-THE Con-
gresham from Missouri" Is a
word painting Of his father as good
as any he ever did with his brush.
And yon'n go home and hug pop
after you read it.