THE CRIMSON BOOKSHELF

For the writing of modern musical comedies and read-at-one-sitting "love and mystery" stories, there have been gradually built up definite formulas the following of which, no matter how obviously, seems to insure success. In the case of the latter, "A" generally represents the person to be murdered in the first chapter; "B" is the extraordinarily beautiful girl, somehow related to "A", upon whom suspicion is cast by the local police; while "C" is the famous detective who solves the various "mysterious", or "sinister", forces--"Z to the nth power"--which surround the murder and emanate from "X", the villain or unknown quantity. The formula is then derived by cancelling "A" with "Z to the nth power", subtracting "X", squaring "B" and adding "C", with as many other factors as the ingenuity of the author can devise.

In "The Blue Circle", however, Miss Jordan has broken away from such a set formula in a refreshing manner. Though she has used some of the more common factors, especially "B", Miss Jordan has succeeded in creating new powers for "Z", which have the unusual combination of being truly thrilling and perfectly plausible, even extremely natural. After a labored attempt to begin with a particularly "striking" and original scene, and after falling into the usual mistake of "creating atmosphere" by a multitude of details about the lonely old country house and casual remarks let drop, for no reason at all, by every member of the household, the author swings her novel into an absorbing story, centering about the cause of a small blue circle of light which, on the first night of his entrance into the Campbell household, appeared before the new secretary, Renshaw, "a plain citizen; but a fairly intelligent one," as he lay in bed.

"A plain citizen" sums up the effectiveness of the story, which raises it above the run of its kind. Except for one or two stock figures, the story is about "plain citizens", among them a fascinating child in a "bunny suit", developed by excellent touches of characterization and woven into a narrative that so closely parallels real life that one finds one's self, more than once, experiencing the same reactions as the characters. The style is especially smooth flowing, and enlivened with sparkling glances of natural humor and keen appreciation of situation.