ERE THE PLOT THICKENS

=i=

Scarcely anyone is there, now writing mystery stories, who,
with the combination of ingenuity--or perhaps I should say
originality--dependableness, and a sufficient atmosphere comes up to
the high and steady level of Frank L. Packard. Born in Montreal in 1877
of American parents, a graduate of McGill University and a student of
Liege, Belgium, Mr. Packard was engaged in engineering work for some
years and began writing for a number of magazines in 1906. He now
lives at Lachine, Province of Quebec, Canada, and the roll of his books
is a considerable one. In that roll, there are titles known and
enthusiastically remembered by nearly every reader of the mystery tale.
Is there anyone who has not heard of _The Miracle Man_ or _The Wire
Devils_ or Jimmie Dale in _The Adventures of Jimmie Dale_ and _The Further
Adventures of Jimmie Dale_? _The Night Operator,_ _From Now On_,
_Pawned_, and, most recently, _Doors of the Night_ have had their public
ready and waiting. That same public will denude the book counters of
_Jimmie Dale and The Phantom Clue_ this autumn.

Packard differs from his fellow-writers of mystery stories in his flair
for the unusual idea. In _Pawned_ each character finds himself in pawn to
another, and must act as someone else dictates. _Doors of the Night_ is
the account of a man who was both a notorious leader and hunted prey of
New York's underworld. _From Now On_ is the unexpected story of a man
after he comes out of prison; and Jimmie Dale, Fifth Avenue clubman, was,
to Clancy, Smarlinghue the dope fiend; to the gang, Larry the Bat, stool
pigeon; but to Headquarters--the Grey Seal!

Stories of the underworld are among the most difficult to write. The thing
had, it seemed, been done to death and underdone and overdone when Packard
came along. In all seriousness, it may be said that Packard has restored
the underworld to respectability--as a domain for fictional purposes at
least! It is not that his crooks are real crooks--though they are--but
that he is able to put life into them, to make them seem human. No man is
a hero to his valet and no crook can be merely a crook in a story of the
underworld that is intended to convey any sense of actuality. Beside the
distortions and conventionalisations of most underworld stories, Packard's
novels stand out with distinctiveness and a persistent vitality.

=ii=

When a book called _Bulldog Drummond_ was published there was no one