A NEARNESS OF EVIL

A tabloid type of case is not quite up to the (publisher) comparison with Compulsion, or An Anatomy of Murder, but still there are enough shockables to whet a certain kind of interest-which is certainly held- in the story of Bobby Randall, a homosexual, Neal, one of his young men, and Diane, his daughter-who became Neal's wife. Alfie Fischer, a childhood friend and later lawyer, records the unhealthy annals here which begin with Bobby Randall's protected and indulged childhood as the only son of the tremendously wealthy Bella Rindshauer; his change of name -- and pace- as he attempted to break in high society; his on again, off again, marriage to the pretty, tractable Florence; and the child of that marriage, Diane, who grew up as extravagant- and decadent- as her father, and whose violent death led to the trial (""a terrible fairy tale"") of the man they both had shared. Fischer's handling of the case, both in the courtroom and here, subdues the more flagrant features, and if there's no real improvement value, there's the readability which curiosity alone assures.