Books: Murder in May, Jun. 9, 1941

A TOAST To TOMORROW—Manning Coles—Crime Club ($2). The deputy chief of the German Police in 1933 recovers from amnesia to remember he is actually Hambledon of British Intelligence in World War I. Thereafter "Klaus Lehmann" spies to end all spying, raises hell with German war plans. Timely, well done and not very corny.

MURDER WELL DONE—lone Sandberg Shriber—Farrar & Rinehart ($2).

Tyrannical old lady Stanford, smothered in bed on her Lake Michigan island, leaves $20,000,000 worth of murder and grief to her collected mismarried heirs. Intricately well-plotted.

THE TWENTY-ONE CLUES—J. J. Connington—Little, Brown ($2). An English version of the Hall-Mills murder case: preacher and paramour pistoled in the bracken. Sir Clinton Driffield, chief constable, uses dead cats to prove the Crown needs two warrants for murder. Clever, and a satisfying puzzle.

THE TRIAL OF VINCENT DOON—Will Oursler—Simon & Schuster ($2).

Doon, an artist, is on trial for paper-knifing Edwin Hallett, his fellow house guest in the Van Eyck mansion in Manhattan, for love of Betty Van Eyck. It is a novelty item, presented as exact transcript of the trial itself, with sketches and photographs.

THE LAZY LAWRENCE MURDERS —Todd Downing—Crime Club ($2).

The Hon. Dan Reaper, ex-Governor of Texas, dies in a train for Monterrey, where his fiancée is waiting at the altar. Peter Bounty, sheriff, supervises detection en route, has a double murderer before arrival. Pretty good.

MANY MURDERS—Inez Haynes Irwin—Random House ($2). An epidemic of murder in a little New England town engages Patrick O'Brien, police chief, and his wife in some tough times with their friends. Good honest detecting with everything fitting tightly.

THE PERENNIAL BOARDER — Phoebe Atwood Taylor — Norton ($2). Olive Beadle, shot in Ye Olde Whale caravansary on Cape Cod, gives Asey Mayo a rare bit of homespun detecting to do. Asey's grammar gets worse as his sleuthing gets better.