Mildred B. Davis

Miss Davis, whose The Voice on the Telephone (1964) was chilling enough, has produced another spidery tale about a homegrown blackmailer whose murder is particularly disrupting to the influential citizens of typical suburbia. The reader is allowed to be present at the scene of the crime and the choice of suspect is limited to four (or five?) females... which is the deadliest? The author's brand of suspense keeps the guesswork going until the last page. It's deadly insect-icide.

When her mother plunged off a cliff and was killed, Finley didn't suspect murder, nor did anyone else. Next, there was a hit-and-run disaster--an unfortunate accident, the police said. But when a woman was poisoned by her favorite diet cola. Finley was sure an avenging murderer was at work in the peaceful university town. Each of the victims had received the same message before death struck: "Tell them what's-her-name called."

It was an unspeakable nightmare-she was in some kind of institution, and the other patients all seemed to be freaks and imbeciles. She couldn't remember her own face . and she was baffled by the strange scars on her arms and legs. The doctor told her that her name was Jane, that she'd been in a serious accident, that she was being taken care of by a kindly man who was her trustee and guardian. She remembered a lot of other things, too . . . but she had no way of knowing what was real and what was a product of her own fantastic dreams. She remembered clouds, and fire, and danger, and parts of books. And a man dying. She struggled to walk into her past . but then a stranger appeared, and advised her that for her own safety some things were better left forgotten!

The third half doesn't exist which makes ... ... this equation difficult to prove out: three disappearances; the kidnapping of a child; an impromptu wedding which brings an American girl to an old English castle with a curse; and some ... more » international implications, a much wanted radar patent. . . . 1/2 romance; 1/2 suspense; 1/2 candycoated entertainment.