Three best bets among last month's 14 detective stories:
STRAWSTACKDorothy Cameron DisneyRandom House ($2). A conservative Vermont spinster buys a swank Maryland farm, regrets it when she finds herself involved in three horrible murders. Cleverly-constructed story in the Mary Roberts Rinehart tradition.
BLOW-DOWNLawrence G. Blochman Harcourt, Brace ($2). Death, destruction and international intrigue on a Caribbean banana plantation. First-rate plot, pace and background. (Appearing serially in Collier's as The Resounding Skies.)
MURDER MASKS MIAMIRufus KingCrime Club ($2). Lieutenant Valcour gets a killer who uses a murderous hypo on two unpopular womenan ultra-respectable old...