The Crookshaven Murder

This is a good detective story. When the reviewer has said that, his task is virtually completed, for what more can he do (barred as he is from giving his readers any inkling of the solution of the plot) than to enumerate the qualities which everyone knows constitute virtue in a mystery tale? Here they are, then: an initial situation that immediately awakens curiosity and suggests a variety of possible solutions, yet baffles the mind in attempting to be sure that any one of them is correct; a rapid succession of minor mysteries following the initial one, thus keeping up both the reader's interest and his uncertainty; clues innumerable, leading apparently to contradictory conclusions, yet in the final unraveling all within the realms of logic; characters of sufficient number and diversity of background to make practically all of them objects of suspicion not only to the gentle reader but to their own co-actors in the story; such balance of emotional values as to bring the reader's sympathies at the end of the book properly and naturally with the innocent and against the guilty characters; and last and most important of all, a completely satisfying denouement that without qpcaggeration or discrepancy explains every one of the puzzling occurrences that have been presented. Those are the qualities we demand of a detective story; "The Crookshaven Murder" possesses them all.

Perhaps the most original point in Mr. Morrison's tale is the setting for the crime. Gerard King, himself a writer of detective stories and the affluent owner of a country house, entertains a varied and intelligent group of houseparty guests by dramatizing for them a perplexing murder scene, offering a prize to that member of his select audience who can correctly solve the mystery. The play is presented in Mr. King's workshop in a reconstructed barn; the actors are members of his household. When the little drama is over and the lights are turned up once more, the startling discovery is made that a real murder has been committed, the protagonist of the play, Mr. King himself, is dead, stabbed through the heart. From that point to the end of the book, events move swiftly and in variety enough to satisfy the most ardent thrill-seeker. The "detective" is a country constable, who hides beneath a humorously rural exterior a Yankee shrewdness of perception that of course wins out at last. And then there is the inevitable, yet properly subordinated, love story—two of them, in fact.

So if you like a mystery novel—and nearly everyone does— I can promise you in "The Crookshaven Murder" a pleasant evening's entertainment. Go to it! F. L. C.

A group of eight poems by Mrs. Elizabeth Hollister Frost of Rochester, N. Y., widow of the late E. P. Frost '05 was published in the February Harper's Magazine. Most beautiful of these poems is perhaps the lyric "The Lost Lyrist" as follows:

"My Heart's a lyre one hand alone can play, That hand is mute. Now all day long my little house Of song is destitute. But when night comes and all grief's comforters Have closed their wings, Within those dear, dark dedicated walls, Fugitive as breath, a homing finger falls Upon the strings— And my heart sings."

The Proceedings of the Bar Association of the State of New Hampshire, 1925, just published, contains the President's address by Thomas D. Luce '75; Remarks on Hon. William E. Chandler by Hon. George H. Moses '90; and A Sketch of Frank Otis Chellis '85 by John McCrillis 'B3. In the same volume there is an appreciation of the Hon. John Kivel '76 by William H. Sawyer and an appreciation of Charles William Hoitt '7l by J. J. Doyle.

"Walter Henry Sanborn, a testimonial volume" compiled and published by the Bar Association of St. Louis, a volume of 180 pages, issued as a tribute to Judge Sanborn of the class of 1867, has been recently published.

The H. W. Gray Company of New York, American agents for Novello Company, London, have recently published several musical works, composed by H. A. Mackinnon, Dartmouth '14. These consist of anthems, carols, solo vocal parts, a negro spiritual, and a choral Prelude on "Dundee" for the organ, the latter appearing in the American Organ Quarterly for April, 1927.

Professor Isaac Joslin Cox '96 is the author of "Nicaragua and the United States, 1909-1927" published as volume 10, number 7 of the World Peace Foundation pamphlets.

"The Rate of Living, being an account of some experimental studies on the biology of life duration" by Dr. Raymond Pearl '99 has recently been published by Alfred A. Knopf.

From the press of M. A. Donohue and Company, New York has come "Folks is Folks" by Hon. John Henry Bartlett '94, First Assistant Postmaster General. In this little book of 138 pages Mr. Bartlett has written a collection of short stories reminiscent of New England. The author in his preface says "These short writings are but a few mental antiques which I would show to the friendly reader in precisely the same manner as I would ask him into my home to look at the highboys and old mirrors which I had collected there."

The third edition of "Probate and Administration for Nebraska Including Guardianship and Adoption of Children with Forms" by Arthur K. Dame '82 has been published recently by the Thomas Law Book Company of St. Louis.

Lewis H. Haney '03 is the author of "The Stock Market and Business" which appears in the February issue of the North American Review.

"The Chemical and Physical Characteristics of Cod Liver Oil" by Dr. Arthur D. Holmes 'O6 and Walter Z. Clough, appears in the December, 1927 issue of Oil and Fat Industries.

"Ruskin the Professor" by Jason Almus Russell '20 appears in the January issue of TheSouth Atlantic Quarterly, Duke University, Durham, N. C.

Professor Carl S. H«ar 'll is the author "Chromosome Studies in Aesculus" which appears in the October number of The BotanicalGazette. This paper has been reprinted for private circulation.