Dear Taxes sie Scice—By Gavin Holt In_bis latest book, "Death Takes the Stage," Gavin Holt sets off at once trid continues droyehout at "rear ace in a maze of mysteries. It not long before his large following of readers come to realize that here, by some miracle, they are again confronted with the wiles and ruthless courage of that super-Dilling-for, Acel the arch-criminal, made Known to them in earlier books as Green Talons and the Hawk. Vivid imagination and a care for detail sive a semblance of possibility to this. fantastic series of happenings, many of which bear a likeness to some of the exploits recorded from time to time of modern-day oriminals in the actual world of affairs Professor Bastion again is forced 'he against his will to take a major part!
this breathless man-hunt. This by the simple means of a message of unknown origin that brings him to a low cafe in Soho. Here his me-mary of former adventures is revived by the sight of a beautiful woman in whom he feels he recognizes a likeness to the dancer who, long ago, died in the net betraying her' master, Acel, the Hawk, In this place, while the professor, Inspector Burchell of Seotland Yard and Adrien Lebas of the Sureté of Paris, confer, Maximov, the Spider of Moscow's police, confides It was he who called them together as he has reason to believe that Ace! still lives. Of a sudden, before his whole story is told, the place 1s blown up and the Spider alone of them all is found dead with a poker chip in his hand, the visiting card and warning of" the Hawk, From now on ina welter of confusing eross-currents in affairs.
The chase proceeds and the excite ment is tinged with horror at the magnitude and ruthlessness of the ceriminat's methods as. his operations close in on the major capitals. of Europe. The terror is projected on. 8 major plane and keyed to its highest pitch when all London and Paris are aghast at the kidnapping of two celebrities, the one as. he proceeds to Paris to meet the other to conclude an important Ananciat deal. The thread of affairs for £0
Jong pursued in secret. i now brought to the surface and the hunt is on in earnest. To press too hard 4s to rust the warrants of eruet death for the captured millionaires. To refrain Is to Jose the last traces in the evidence so far revealed. Che max is reached at the opera in Paris when, at the crisis in the drama made' famous by Bizet, Carmen plays as never she played before. The cards are spades and the, (00, pays the highest price. Tumult en sues but the trackers bear away as swiftly as the hunted to London ju the trail of the mysterious singer who played the counter-able to Carmen.
Mere in, splendid fashion alt mysteries take: on their deepest hie to burst out in the high light of desperate remedies. Masterly hand~ ling) of the great wealth of detail and eltcumstanee already introduce ed keeps the main tenor of the plot lear and interest is never permitted to flag until the very end, but even here, it 1s wonderful how each of the numerous actors "and actresses brought into scenes of earlier episodes are meticulously matched
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.