CRUCIBLE
By Ben Ames Williams '10, Houghton Mifflin Cos., Boston, 1937. 306 pages. $2.00.
Mr. Williams is, and always has been, a very clever plot-smith. He takes a situation, invests it with complications, and then, in the due process of his book, clears it in rather unexpected fashion. The method is of course, in the manner of the writers of the better class of detective stories, but there is something about the Williams plot that possesses a characteristic originality. It takes his books of lighter vein and conventional characterization out of the class of mere entertainment, and gives a chance to the man with the pencil who does contract problems and cross-words seriously.
It is not that Mr. Williams as a writer neglects characterization, for he has done some very fine character creation in many of his other books. The characters here are simply subordinated to the problem, the puzzle, call it what you will. They are merely puppets,—young people of conventional type, of college age, with plenty of vitality who speak the language of their time, and dress and dance as young people of the age are expected to dress and dance and behave. A fairly well-to-do Cambridge family of Sentrys is suddenly faced with a murder charge, extended actually however only to the father. The girl, daughter, of a younger set, a boy from Yale, and a mother who is a social-climber hold our interest, and try in their own way to free the father from the murder charge. For a time it looked as if a professor at the Harvard Law School might be involved, and to tell the truth, the reviewer was quite disappointed that the professor didn't turn out to be the murderer. He might have pleaded that he was suffering from a March let-down, if the trial had come off in early spring. Information leading to the truth of the matter comes from a source so wholly unexpected that it really gives the story its special interest. One might suspect the real murderer early in the presentation of evidence, but the way in which he is turned up smacks of real genius. One finds the story diverting and interesting.
