Books: Cock Robin Killing

THE BISHOP MURDER CASE−S.S. Van Dine−Scribners ($2).

The original title of this book was “The Mother Goose Murder Case.” It was changed because the publishers probably feared that the public would think it a book for children−a gentle story with a fairytale murder.

A sportsman named Joseph Cochrane (“Cock”) Robin was found dead with an arrow through his heart. A man named Sperling (German for sparrow) was suspected.

Who killed Cock Robin? “I” said the sparrow, “With my bow and arrow, I killed Cock Robin.”

It was, of course, not as simple as that. Other murders followed. One John Sprigg was shot through the middle of his wig. A scholarly hunchback, whom children called Humpty Dumpty, sat on a wall, had a great fall, was found dead. Then came the slaughter of the suspects−an annoying device which S.S. Van Dine used to better effect in The Greene Murder Case. Shrewd readers should be able to pick the culprit among the two remaining suspects; stupid readers would do well to flip a coin.

The majority of the characters in the book are a bit balmy−including the detective, Philo Vance, an arty fellow, who smokes Regie cigarets and says “amazin’ ” for amazing. Chess and higher mathematics are discussed and rediscussed until the reader, too, is a bit balmy.

S.S. Van Dine is the murder-case pseudonym of Willard Huntington Wright, art critic and onetime editor of Smart Set (TIME, Sept. 10, PEOPLE.) The Canary Murder Case is, far and away, his best.