Club-Murder

MURDER AT BRATTOX GRANGE--John Rhode--Dodd, Mead ($2). When Sir Hector Davidson was found dead with a metal file driven through his heart, only one person was seriously suspected, Guy Davidson, the heir. First the police charged Guy with the murder; then even Dr. Priestley, famed criminologist whom Guy summoned, found sufficient circumstantial evidence to make the prosecution think it had a clear case. However, by calmly assuming the guilt, Guy was able, on a technicality, to go free. Afterward Dr. Priestley, discovering how the murder really happened, forebore to reveal his knowledge to the State. The story differs from others of its ilk in that, in the usual denouement of ''bringing the criminal to justice," justice here involves neither police-courts nor retribution. Murder at Bratton Grange is sent out by the Detective Story Club.

The publisher's agent of the future threatens, or promises, to be not so much the retail bookseller any more, as the literary club with its thousands of book-a-month readers who are generally subscribers-by-the-year. Book-of-the-Month Club, which merely selects and sends books at no great reduction, has the largest number of subscribers. Literary Guild, cheaper, selects and sends as well as does its own binding, has second largest subscription list. Others more or less similar, are the following, supplied by the Publishers' Weekly, publishing trade organ: Paper Books, Limited Editions Club of America, Inc.; Poetry Clan; Free Thought Club; Religious Book Club; Catholic Book Club, Inc.; Detective Story Club, Inc.; Crime Club; Junior Book Club; Junior Literary Guild; Children's Book Club, Inc.; Selected Books for Juniors, Inc.