Books: September Murders

THE WOMAN IN RED — Anthony Gilbert — Smith & Durrell ($2). A jobless and desperate English girl finally gets a place in a sinister London household ruled by a red-wigged old lady with murderous intentions. Private Detective Crook rescues the damsel and clears out the villainous nest. An excellent thriller.

TOO MANY BONES — Ruth Sawtell Wallis — Dodd, Mead ($2). How the disappearance of a domineering widow, who browbeat the staff of a Midwestern museum, led to grisly discoveries by a young anthropologist and his pretty assistant. A mixture of shivers and sprightly talk.

THE GRINNING PIG — Nap Lombard — < Simon & Schuster ($2). Two successful slayings and sundry near misses by a pig-masked killer keep a whole crew of English detectives — amateur and professional — on the jump. An amusing, almost unguessable, exciting yarn, as bright as paint and thoroughly unprincipled.

SALLY’S IN THE ALLEY—Norbert Davis—Morrow ($2). Carstairs, a dignified, sniffy and deadly Great Dane, helps his detective owner catch the killer of a cinemactress and break up a Western spy ring. A rich morsel for readers who like them tough and raucous.

HE FELL DOWN DEAD — Virginia Perdue — Crime Club ($2). The suspenseful tale of a young bride’s discovery that her handsome and plausible husband — a California quack doctor — is a proper target for murder. Exciting, convincing and an excellent job of writing, in the same bracket with Francis Iles’s Before the Fact.