THE BIG CLOCK (175 pp.)—Kenneth Fearing—Harcourt, Brace ($2.50).
Kenneth Fearing’s fiction has never had the kick of his verse; his first murder mystery, The Big Clock, has it—the deadpan, make-believe sinister quality, and the terse, preposterous fancy. It is, besides, a thriller with a unique plot.
George lives in a suburb with Georgette his wife and Georgia, 5. He is a smart executive with a big magazine publishing company. At a party he meets his boss’s icy blonde, Pauline. “The eye saw nothing but innocence, to the instincts she was undiluted sex, the brain said here was a perfect hell.” George accepts this information but has to verify it on a weekend with Pauline.
The brain was right. Pauline is murdered. The tension grows as the net is drawn tighter & tighter.
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