Books: Murder in October, Nov. 3, 1941

NEVER COME BACK—John Nair—Little, Brown ($2.50). After throttling his leman, a London hack writer discovers she possessed the secret code of a traitorous political organization. His immoral cunning helps him quench the national danger and save his own skin after more murders, torture, Buchanesque chases and all-round wickedness. A thoroughly unprincipled, exciting, ably written tale.

THE NAVY COLT—Frank Gruber—Farrar & Rinehart ($2). The penniless book agents, Cragg & Fletcher, are linked to the shooting of a Chicago wastrel who owns a museum-piece Colt once toted by Jesse James. Solution of the gun's secret and two murders finds these extraordinary amateur...