Books: Yarn, Well-Spun

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THE MAN WITH THE SCARRED HAND—Henry Kitchell Webster—Bobbs-Merrill ($2)*

When Bank Clerk Jim Blake found his boss in conference with a man who had a long red scar on the back of his hand, he had the feeling that something queer was afoot. This goes to show that in a mystery story not even the hero should jump to conclusions. Still, you can hardly blame Jim (who was not overly given to suspicion), for he never laid eyes again on the scarred man till they suddenly met in a dripping cavern, in the dark. Between those two meetings Jim had plenty to think about.

First he was fired, for no apparent reason except that he refused to sell his boss a small property he had just inherited, and because he had changed his vacation to go take a look at the land. Then he found somebody else, using his own name, had arrived before him. Then he saw Her. After that he was carried along on a sudden swirl of adventure that might have swept away a less sturdy hero, that should carry you with it willy-nilly.

Henry Kitchell Webster is one of the minority of U. S. mystery writers who tells a wild yarn so plainly and well you keep forgetting its improbabilities. Though Webster has written mystery stories without a single killing, if you take murders for insomnia The Man with the Scarred Hand should give you a night's repose.