HANGMAN'S TIE

Workmanlike job, with plenty of red herrings and lots of action, in a story where most clues seem to involve the rather incompetent and spoiled heir to a fortune in two violent deaths and some shadowy happenings on the side. Miss Picard -- despite her 200 pounds -- manages to get around; she conceals some evidence from the canny Lieutenant French (of Exit Screaming) --and what she doesn't unearth, her devious servant, Alfredo, runs down for her. Good situations -- well developed circumlocutions to keep interest at white heat -- better written than most. Setting -- a mid-western town.