Murder in April

GOOD NIGHT, SHERIFF--Harrison R. Sfeeves--Random House ($2). Dr. Patterson, insurance-company investigator, goes to the log and deer country where Agnes Earlie, wife of a local doctor, has been shot with a high-power, steel-jacketed rifle bullet. Finding no motive in $20,000 insurance, Patterson becomes Dr. Earlie's guest, quietly garners enough circumstantial evidence to convict the Doctor or any one of several people who loved and respected Mrs. Earlie. A first-rate story, it is short on blood, long on plot and psychology.

THE PUZZLE OF THE HAPPY HOOLIGAN --Stuart Palmer--Crime Club ($2). Hildegarde Withers, the school-teacher whose detective powers have for many years shamed Inspector Oscar Piper of the New York police, visits Hollywood, where broken necks are becoming too common on a movie lot. Miss Withers' own neck is almost wrung and Inspector Piper flies to the rescue.

A CURTAIN FOR CRIME--M. P. Rea--Crime Club ($2). A series of department-store murders wrings the heart of Salesgirl Linda Thorne, who fears that her blonde roommate or her young man may be guilty. It starts with a bash in the drapes.

A POCKETFUL OF CLUES--James R. Langham--Simon & Schuster ($2). Tough Detective Sammy Abbott, who has a morbid appetite for peanut butter on his ice cream, sees a ragamuffin giving the hotfoot to a park-bench sleeper. The sleeper does not twitch. In fact underneath his newspaper he has no head at all. A story of civic corruption in Santa Monica, with mayor dead and crooked politicians confounded.

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