Murder in February

Of last month's score-odd murder tales, the following stood out:

MURDER IN SHINBONE ALLEY -- Helen Reilly--Crime Club ($2). A rich old dodderer and the witless Willie Cleet get theirs before Inspector McKee finds out who shoved last year's unloved Glamor Girl off the 14th story art school terrace. Close to tops, with plenty of screwy New York types.

THE PATIENCE OF MAIGRET--Georges Simenon--Harcourt, Brace ($2). Two novelettes by a fantastic Frenchman. Inspector Maigret waits while subordinates make the hue and brass hats foam and fret. And presently the guillotine snicks a cervix or Devil's Island claims another Gaul.

THE AFFAIRS OF O'MALLEY--William MacHarg--Dial ($2.50). Thirty-three murder shorts, in which Plain-clothes Man O'Malley's detecting is as good as his grammar is bad.

AND THEN THERE WERE NONE --Agatha Christie--Dodd, Mead ($2). One of the most ingenious thrillers in many a day. A shadowy host collects ten people, each with an unpunished past, on a small island off the English coast. There the nursery rhyme about the Ten Little Indians, ghoulishly revised to fit the gathering, is remorselessly fulfilled.

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