Letters: Murders of the Month: Jul. 2, 1934

• Share

DEATH ON THE OUTER SHOAL—Anne Fuller & Marcus Allen—Button ($2). The tenure of life is disturbed on an autonomous fishers' isle in New England. The ''Old Man" shoulders his responsibility of suspecting friend and fighting suspicion. The case is ended, and justice administered without benefit of "the Law," just as each of the 27 inhabitants assumes hate and deadly suspicion of his fellows.

THE RUSE OF THE VANISHED WOMEN— Val Gielgud—Crime Club ($2). Two branches of the Secret Service, Scotland Yard, and the well-meaning amateur skip about England and France, seeking a kidnapped girl—with many hidden intentions.

THE CHINESE ORANGE MYSTERY—Ellery Queen—Stokes ($2). Ellery and Inspector Queen are balked for a time in a maze of philately and jewel-collecting; but Ellery perspicaciously solves the clue of the "backwards room" and, of course, the murder.

DEATH MEETS THE KING'S MESSENGER —Gilbert Collins—Crime Club ($2). Kidnapping, murder and dope-running are uncovered by Private Investigator Carding, after the Surete, Scotland Yard and the Secret Service had all failed.

THE CASE OF THE HOWLING DOG—Erie Stanley Gardner—Morrow ($2). Perry Mason finds the bodies, antagonizes the police, sleeps little, solves his fourth murder case.

THE BACHELOR FLAT MYSTERY—R. A. J. Walling—Morrow ($2). Mr. Tolfree takes over the task of protecting a Lord's young relatives from the cruel world.

EYES IN THE WALL—Carolyn Wells— Lippincott ($2). The title phrase allows Fleming Stone his solution of three murders among Greenwich Village artists.

THE EMERALD MURDER TRAP—Jackson Gregory—Scribner ($2). Wicked old Paradene's trap was not long empty; it caught more than he wanted, because of Mr. Paul Savoy.

SHADOW ON THE WALL—H. C. Bailey—Crime Club ($2). Mr. Fortune foresees strange events, solves murder, finds a dope trail, in conversational innuendo, in his first book-length story.

MR. PARKER PYNE DETECTIVE—Agatha Christie—Dodd, Mead ($2). A dozen short stories, in which Mr. Pyne arranges the destinies of his unhappy supplicants.