Books: The Mysteries

THE BAD BLONDE, by Jack Webb* (245 pp.; Rlnehart; $2.75), is a neatly plotted, fast-moving yarn featuring those two old friends and collaborators in crimebusting, Sergeant Sammy Golden and Father Joseph Shanley. The Jewish cop and the Roman Catholic priest are not only believable characters; they emerge as intelligent, genuinely good men who, therefore, understand the nature of wrongdoing. When these two set out to nail a crook, the standard good-v.-evil struggle takes on depth and excitement. There is probably a valuable lesson here for writers of the unrelieved tough-guy school, in which the hero’s morals are as shady as those of the villains.

GENTLY BY THE SHORE, by Alan Hunfer (249 pp.; Rinehart; $2.75), deposits the naked body of an unidentified man on the beach at Starmouth, an English seaside resort. The body shows four stab wounds and unmistakable signs of torture. Chief Inspector Gently, Central Office, C.I.D., a Scotland Yard detective who unfortunately pops peppermints into his mouth during tense moments, gives the tale a tone of well-mannered British calm in spite of the neon-lighted boardwalk setting and a lurid cast of characters, which includes a prostitute, a couple of juvenile delinquents, a village idiot and a gang of international spies.

BEST DETECTIVE STORIES OF THE YEAR — 1956, edited by David C. Cooke (252 pp.; Dutfon; $2.95), indicates that the detective short story is undergoing a marked change and notable improvement. In the majority of these tales, whodunit is not the main point. Like all effective short stories, most of them rely on character, emotional impact and skillful writing. The collection includes some talented newcomers and examples by such practiced hands as William Fay, Craig Rice, John and Ward Hawkins and Rufus King.

THE BARBAROUS COAST, by Ross Moc-donald (247 pp.; Knopf; $2.95), gives motivation and complexity to the stock characters of the hard-guy private-eye school. Detective Lew Archer, moving through the criminal fringe of the Southern California movie world, is just the man to delight fans of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler.

THE SECOND MAN, by Edward Grler-son (308 pp.; Knopf; $1.25), deals with a murder trial, but readers who insist on the conventional “mystery” or “suspense” story at first may be let down. They should recover soon after the opening pages of this leisurely, finely textured novel about the first big case of a female trial lawyer. The interest centers on the character of the heroine and the fascinating details of the British legal system.

A CAPITOL OFFENSE, by Jocelyn Davey (253 pp.; Knopf; $3), is set in and around the British embassy in Washington. The dust jacket accurately describes it as “an entertainment.” There are a couple of murders, but in the main the book is a witty, lighthearted spoof of the diplomatic set—including the Americans, the French, the South Americans, the Russians and, of course, the British, who are able to spoof themselves more tellingly than anyone else.

WE HAVEN’T SEEN HER LATELY, by E. X. Ferrars (186 pp.; Doubleday; $2.75), asks some arresting questions but dawdles a little too long over the answers. Has dear old Aunt Violet, married late in life, been done in by a Bluebeard husband? Or is she merely being driven out of her mind so that he can control her property and income? The nicely drawn English countryside is pleasant and relaxing, but the colorless romance of Aunt Violet’s niece, who spearheads the inquiries, is soporific.

* No kin to Jack (Dragnet) Webb.