Evening star., 1947-09-14
Crime and Mystery
By Miriom Ottenbero

BY Mlrion
NIGHT WALK
BY Elizabeth DAILY. (Rinehart 6
Co.; ST.
Nobody in the out-of the wa,
hamlet Of Fraziers Mills ever LOCKED
a door. After all, why should they
Except for the transients wh'
stayed at the Tavern-a misnome
and the rich convalescents a
Edgewood, everybody knew every
body else. That's why it took
while for the alarm to spread th'
night the proWler walked. O.
course, nobody saw the prowler bu
doorknobs turned mysteriously, 6
shadow fitted through the woods
and fire ak was pulled from it!
moorings. And that would have
been the end of it If old Mr.. Car,
rington hadn't been found with hi
head Dashed in.
BY the time Henry Gamadge
reached the village, its century-olc
peace was definitely shattered ane
every door was locked and bolted
In his usual quiet fashion. Henry
allowed the murderer to set his owr
trap.
With her customary urbanity
Miss Daily gives the reader a gentle
shove in all the wrong directions
Her Henry Gamadge is as wei.
come to readers surfeited with un-
distinguished summer offerings as
he must have been to the panic
stricken residents of The Mills.
X X
DEPARTURE DELAYED
By Will Oursler. (Simon &
Schuster, ST.
Sergt. Roy Marshall's waking
nightmare begins when he finds
himself on a subway train anc
can't remember how he got there
In the four months that mex.
plicably have dropped out of his
life, he apparently has murdered
a man he didn't know, married anC
left a society girl, taken up with q
torch-singing dope addict and gen.
orally accumulated for himself g
pack of trouble He is pitched into
the hands of the police before he
has been able to unravel more thar
a few threads of that mysterious
four months.
He can remember leaving ar
Army hospital. He can even re.
member the China raid that put
him there Somewhere In the back.
gound. he is certain, turks the mar
he was supposed to kill on that raic
and didn't. The police believe ne
part of his story but a Nisei lieu.
tenant in Army intelligence it
willing to go along with him to the
happy ending of his bad dreams.
The amnesia twist has beer
worked many times before but Mr.
Oursler packs enough adventure
into his nightmare to justify using
it again.
BE STILL MY LOVE
BY June Truesdell. (Dodd, Mead
& Co.; $780,
Following q popular trend, the
author relies on the excitement of
the hunt rather than the mystery
of the killer to create her suspense
In that, she succeeds better than
most for two reaSons-her killer Is
full fashioned and has more at
stake than the electric chair If her
deed is discovered.
DR.. Wilma Tuttle is a neurotic
school teacher, afraid of the dark,
uneasy with men, given to spinster-
ish dress and mannerisms. On i'm
pulse she dates student and the
date ends in murder. Because she
is professor of criminal psy"
chology. her aid is sought by a
friend of the youths family bent on
tracking down the killer. Similarly
determined is Capt. Gowan of the
Los Angeles Homicide Department
Of all the men in Los Angeles,
Wilma picks the family friend for
her true love and is forced into con-
stant association with Capt. Gowan
Obviously, she finds herself in an
position and the author
makes the most of her killer
heroines frantic efforts to escape
payment. The whole is told with
suitable understatement and an
eye for betraying detail.
X X
THE LABORS OF HERCULES
BY Agatha Christie. >(Dodd,
Mead & Co.: $780,
Hercule Poirot of the huge con-
ceit and proud mustache compares
himself to the ancient Hercules and
to say-conSiders him
self far superior to the neurological
hero. He decides to prove his superb
ority by undertaking IL cases, SYM
bolically named after the II super
human attainments of his proto-
type. On this thread, Miss Christie
hangs a dozen short tales of Poirot's
X
THE COPPER LADY