MYSTERY OF THE UNWELCOME VISITOR

A New England winter in the rambling house recently vacated by tenant Mrs. Shaw, seemed a bleak pre-college prospect for Katherine Taber and her younger brother Ken. But the thrills of heavy detective work, necessitated by strange footsteps on the terrace, a missing closet key, a loose brick in the wall and the recent theft of a bag of uncut diamonds soon dispelled any boredom. Kay's talents in geology are applied to digging up information and her job on the local paper in compiling a kind of ""keepsake edition"" provides the rationale for her prying. With the help of the handsome Bromley twins between whom Kay vacillates romantically, the group points the guilty finger at Alvin Hupp, brother-in-law of Mrs. Shaw, who had been using Farview to stash away his loot. Ken eventually finds the diamonds and although both Tabers are rewarded, their readers certainly are not. Suspense is forever buried in wordiness, scheming, planning and evaluation. Action, that all important ingredient in a good mystery is at a bare minimum.