MOSTLY HOMICIDE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 39, Issue 988, 25 July 1958, Page 12

MOSTLY HOMICIDE

LANTERN HILL, by Barbara Worsley-Gou ie Michael Joseph, English price 13/6. CORK IN THE DOGHOUSE, by Macdonald Hastings; Michael Joseph, English price 12/6, THE SOFT TALKERS, by Margaret Millar; Victor Gollancz, English price 12/6. THE LIGHTNING’S EYE, by Richard Savage; Museum Press, English price 12/6, THE KILLER WIND, by Robin Hiscock; Arthur Barker, English price 12/6, LADY KILLER, by William Hardy; Hamish Hamilton, English price 12/6, OU may find the mystery of the murder in Lantern Hill less interesting than the variety of characters and avocations. Barbara Worsley-Gough’s leading figure is q magnificently beauti-. ful Irishwoman with a_ super-Trilby

voice, who commands a great public with "pop" songs. She has no musical subtlety, but her voice reminds one of Big Ben. This half-gorgeous, half-vulgar creature, egotistical, amoral, racy and reckless, but kind in spots, is surrounded by a crowd of assistants and hangers-on, some af whom are calculated to make a reader pray that whatever young John or Mary takes up, it won’t be the arts! Barbara Worsley-Gough writes exceptionally well, with colour and wit. The murder motive goes back to Hitler, so you will realise something unusual in sleuthing is involved. Montague Cork, the middle-aged insurance director and amateur detective, won my affection from the start. Cork in the Doghouse may not be his best book, but surely it is the most original, for the heroine is a Staffordshire bullterrier, a breed claimed. to be the most formidable fighters in the dog world,

"Honey," who strays into. Cork’s orbit and leads him into a fantastic crime dance, is as ugly as sin but also beautiful, very intelligent, amusing and lovable, and, Lord, how she can fight! Macdonald Hastings appends the true history of this much-guarded breed, and if you are sensitive to the dark side of animals in sport, better not read it. But this is a book to be looked for, especially by dog-lovers. The Soft Talkers raises basic questions about the nature of the detectivethriller. I submit that pace and’ excitements are highly important and bad characters are acceptable so long as they are not dull. Margaret Millar is a writer of quality, but to me this story of intrigue and murder in Canada does not come off, It begins with a fishing and drinking holiday of business cronies, and could any setting be less promising? At the end of a long involved record of relationships within a tiresome group, the reader learns suddenly that he has been deceived throughout. To me at any rate, what was intended as a glorious rocket of surprise, spluttered to earth. I did not believe the parties had the requisite brains, or that~ their machinations mattered. eer? It is the same with Richard Savage’s The -Lightning’s Eye. His previous thriller, Strangers’ Meeting, a tale of Soho, had merit, but this yarn of an Englishman visiting a decayed town in southern Italy and teaming up with a local woman to be caught in a circle of crime, did not grip me a bit. It was rather like watching a poor Rugby game in the gathering twilight — human shadows unimpressively engaged. In The Killer Wind a_ hurricane separates two English sailors from their ship in a small South American town, and they find themselves in peril through witnessing political shootings. The tale of their adventures is somewhat overloaded with detail, but this is Robin Hiscock’s first thriller and he may learn the art of economy. What is impressive is the picture of the two refugees. Ray, the deck-hand, hates the sea and has deliberately deserted. His companion Woods, the middle-aged and ailing bosun, does not realise this, and his one idea is to get another ship. Looking across the breakfast table at his fat, slovenly wife, with her sloshed coffee and cigarette ash, Professor Bostleman, who teaches mathematics at an American university, clinches a longstanding idea of murder, Planning the crime mathematically, he decides to cover up by killing two other women first so that his wife’s death will be attributed to a killer at large. The first two crimes come off, but I will not say any more, except that the professor is attracted by a girl student and that she has a student boy friend. This is an original and competently written study of homicidal mania, but, as you may surmise. not exactly exhilarating.

A.

M.