17 JANUARY 1958, Page 21

Marked Down for Murder. By Spencer Dean. (Boardman,. 10s. 6d.)

Quite absorbing semi- documentary about a store detective, the teenage nymphos who go in for shop-lifting, and the female Fa2in who drills them. A death or so, too, but it's the spring-clip devices for snitching con- sumer goods off counters that make the novel fascityrn and—to the rig ht sort of reader—a potential source of profit anj excitement.

CHRISTOPHER PYM