Murder in December

ALPHABET HICKS--Rex Stout--Farrar & Rinehort ($2). Clever alibi-busting by wily ex-lawyer detective clears up murders in a plastics laboratory near New York. Hicks is a worthy addition to the Stout sleuth-stable (other occupants: Nero Wolfe, Tecumseh Fox).

ENVIOUS CASCA--Georgette Heyer --Crime Club ($2). Variation on two familiar detective-story themes--the English-house -party-where - everybody-hates-his-neighbor, and the corpse-in-the-room-locked-from-the-inside. Pungent dialogue and A-1 characterization make up for certain small shortcomings in the plot.

DOUBLE OR QUITS--A. A. Fair--< Morrow ($2). Accidental poisoning of a California doctor looks queer to pint-sized Donald Lam, who clears it up in his own rough, ready and staccato fashion. The plot is more intricate than in earlier Lam tales; the solving just as good or better.

MURDER WITH YOUR MALTED--Jerome Barry--Crime Club ($2). An outbreak of food and soda poisoning in a Manhattan drugstore drives the young owners almost frantic until a police inspector sets a trap that catches the killer. Soda-fountain argot and wisecracking Broadway dialogue add zest to the well-tangled plot.

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