Murder in December

Best mysteries of the month:

THE THEME IS MURDER--Gown Holt--Simon and Schuster ($2). Death threats appear on scraps of Wagnerian scores, followed by murder in an English country house. The killing is suavely solved by ex-Scotland Yard Inspector Joel Saber and his wisecracking assistant, Ritzy. A bright horror tale peopled with cheerfully wacky Wodehousean characters.

THE MYSTERY BOOK--Anthony Abbot, Leslie Ford, David Frome, Mary Roberts Rinehart & Rex Stout--Farrar & Rinehart ($2.50). Four novelettes, one full-length novel--all good--by five crack mystery mongers.

WHAT NIGHT WILL BRING--Hilea Bailey--Crime Club ($2). An arthritic private investigator and his pretty daughter crack a case involving murders and theft of campaign ideas in a big Midwest ad agency. Some readers may be irked by the highly colored agency background, but the plot is credible, the humor pleasant, the atmosphere creepy.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.