The adventures of an ordinary man who is dragged unwillingly Into the meshes of crooked polities is the theme of "This Is Murder" (Methuen, London. 7/6) "by Charles J. Kenny, The scene of the story is America today, with Sam Moraine, the ordinary man, on "poker-party* terms. with the District Attorney and the Chict Criminal Investigator, -Complicatlons set in when Sam acts o8 go-between with the ransom money in a kidnopping case, and. shootings, hold-ups, blackmail, and murder all lead to his appearing before a Grand Jury on a trumped-up charge of murder. The climax of the book is a dramatic trial, fu which Sam finally clears him~ and succeeds in fastening the guilt on the proper. parties to the crime, Mr. Kenny's style Is simple; he wastes no time on fine writing, and where he can use the Intest slang word from across the Paeifle, he does Nevertheless, this book 1s well to the standard of detective fenton while Sam's method of deduction of the English, rather than the American, type. "The book, therefore, will appear to most tastes—Ec.A,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.