SOFT MONEY

by Henry Barnard Safford'04. Penn Publishing Company, Philadelphia. 1939. $2.00. The main ingredients of this crime novel are soft money (counterfeit bills), hard knocks, tough yeggs, a smooth villain, valiant love, and a Rhode Island background. Dr. Safford adds a good deal of unexpected flavoring, and he cooks a tasty dish. Your reviewer's culinary metaphor may be forgiven because one of the best bits in Soft Money is the code-message: "Hate veal going oddly sour. Never thoroughly eradicates lymph. Ate late steak, nearly edible " If any reader can solve that crytogram, he deserves to have a gold bug pinned on his lapel.