Books: October Mysteries

MR. MIRAKEL —E. Phillips Oppenheim — Little, Brown ($2). The Oppen-heimily-colored, romantic and adventurous tale of a rich London hotel owner who transported a bevy of war-weary cosmopolites to a fantastic Utopia where man, of course, decided to be entertainingly vile. Good Oppenheim and pleasant diversion for an empty evening.

OLD BONES —Herman Peterson —Duell, Sloan and Pearce ($2). How a family skeleton that strayed from its closet to the bottom of an abandoned standpipe endangered the lives of several likable people and gave a rural doctor his chance to play sleuth. Well written, mystifying, capably plotted.

STALK THE HUNTER —Mitchell Wilson —Simon & Schuster ($2). The crowded U.S. career of a pretty young Czechoslovak girl who found Manhattan a roller coaster of murder, hairbreadth escapes, breakneck chases. A capital spy story, adroitly worked out and crammed with action.

THE AFFAIR “OF THE FAINTING BUTLER —Clifford Knight — Dodd, Mead ($2).

The poisoning of a Hollywood author and her secretary in a houseful of pestiferous relatives gives scholarly Detective Huntoon Rogers a tough battle with a slick criminal and a belligerent police officer.

Well-contrived plot with a neat final twist.

MURDER IN HAVANA —George Harmon Coxe —Knopf ($2). A speedily paced yarn of intrigue, murder and sultry females in Havana. A U.S. engineer, carrying valuable papers, is the hero. A rare assortment of shady malefactors try to steal his secrets. International villainy served up in Mr. Coxe’s best manner.

THE STARS ARE DARK —Peter Cheyney —Dodd, Mead ($2). A chilled-steel story of the unchronicled war between English and Nazi Intelligence officers, with a cashiered Briton regaining his spurs in a ruthless, double-dealing, bloodthirsty battle of guns and wits with Hitler’s ace spy. The best of the new espionage yarns.