Three best bets among last month’s 14 detective stories:
STRAWSTACK—Dorothy Cameron Disney—Random 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-DOWN—Lawrence 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 MIAMI—Rufus King—Crime Club ($2). Lieutenant Valcour gets a killer who uses a murderous hypo on two unpopular women—an ultra-respectable old lady and a blackmailing young golddigger. Swift, breezy, tongue-in-cheek tale.
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