THE CADAVER OF GIDEON WYCK.

By a Medical Student. Edited by Alexander Laing '23. Farrar and Rinehart, 1934.

No one who read Alexander Laing's TheSea Witch will be surprised to learn that he can edit as well as create. The same wide reading and scrupulous scholarship which helped to give that fine tale its authenticity are revealed again in the editorial footnotes to The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck.

This evil—almost incredible document has a strange history. Mr. Laing tells us that it was written by a medical student who preferred, for good reasons, to keep his identity secret. Entrusted to a literary agent, it was submitted to Mr. Laing's publishers, Farrar and Rinehart, Inc.; they wisely turned to Mr. Laing for editorial aid. The result is before us, and I commend it to all readers of mysteries, thrillers, and shockers.

It has been observed that truth is stranger than fiction. The reader of this narrative will see no reason for disagreeing, for surely no work of fiction could contain more of the hair-raising and the horrible. Demonology, the deliberate engendering of biological monsters upon women, the dramtic discovery of the Abominable Dr. Wyck's enbalmed corpse in the chlorine-filled and officially sealed vault of a medical school—these are some of the elements of the tale. It would be unfair to summarize the story, however, for the excitement of following its skillful unfolding is as intense as if the work were pure fiction.

If the rest of the book were as good as the first quarter, it would rank among the best thrillers ever written. Unfortunately, the young medic doesn't quite succeed in maintaining the level throughout; but even so, it is a tale no connoisseur of horror and mystery can possibly afford to miss. The novice, on the other hand, will do well to heed the publishers' "WARNING: People unable to withstand violent shock are advised that they read this book on their own responsibility."

One last word. If, as he says in his Prefatory Note, Mr. Laing has made no revision of the expository parts of his manuscript, then the anonymous narrator of these events has quite clearly missed his calling. However good an interne he may be, he should have been a writer. In fact, I doubt if Mr. Laing himself would have done a better job. FRANKLIN MCDUFFEE.