THE CAPTAIN AND THE KINGS DEPART

Nine long short stories by the author of The Horizontal Man which received high acclaim in the mystery field in 1946, which confirm the author's ability shown in that first novel. Here is female strategy, paths of the mind, sex enmity, all in a variety of tempo and all with a sense of urgency. The title story reveals how maturity shows up the truth of the past as a man returns for the funeral of his father, who has suicided; others tell of a daughter's frustrating shame, of a southern gentlewoman who is able to vanquish the traditions and ghosts of the past, of the effects of a woman's selfishness on her child and maid, of a defeated neurotic finding escape in a ghost and suicide, of an old Negro woman and her granddaughter's birthday, of murder engendered by a self-centered woman's careless words, of an eccentric old woman who talks to animals, of the coming of age of a young, second wife as she becomes pregnant. Femininely slanted, collected from magazine appearance, quality tales.