If what you want is plenty of happenings -- two violent deaths, two attacks, a disappearance, lights fading, wires out, queer sounds, hysteria, suspicion and all bathed in an alcoholic haze --here's a sort of caricature of The Circular Staircase in modern dress -- or undress. Better in the build-up than in the breakdown, but keeps you reading. And the setting -- a half empty snowbound inn, a Scotland Yard Inspector accidentally a guest among an odd assortment of guests, offers plenty of chance for melodrama with all the trimmings.