VAIN CITADELS

A novel, an English first, that has its moments of comparison to Green's Odd Man Out of last year, for here again is the manhunt in terms of the hunted man's relation to society, and all its avowed, compassionate members- particularly here, the Church. Leger, in killing the husband of the woman he loves, makes his escape, not in the hope of evading the Law completely, but to have a time of grace in which to learn the strange road he has chosen, in which to find the answers to the questions that his exile poses. In his hegira, guarded by Sergeant Payne, who is only hoping for one gesture that will give him evidence against Leger, Leger faces the problems of money, Helen- his love, God, and the crime he has committed and the punishment he knows is due him. There is an understanding clergyman; an old classmate who turns out to be a true friend; another who satirizes the thinking dangerously, living peaceably, university professor; and the long miles wherein he tries to find the peace he feels will come to him. This is really a sublimation of the psychological thriller, in its superimposed spiritual problems, in its presentation of the less obvious aspects of a crime. For the fanciers.