Grand Train

SLEEPERS EAST -- Frederick Nebel-- Little, Brown ($2).

If Dashiell Hammett had written Grand Hotel, the result might have been something like Sleepers East. Author Nebel cannot command Hammett's sulphurous and suspense-laden style, but he has fitted together a first-rate melodrama, whose plot is more cunningly joined than Grand Hotel's, its suspense and climax better managed. Sleepers East is headed for a brisk trip, with Hollywood one of its way-stations.

Old Engineer Magowan, making his last run, with a second-rate engine in the teeth of a blizzard, swore he would get to division point on time; he drove the train recklessly through the storm. The conductor was worried. At Avondalc they had to stop to pick up a single passenger-- Everett Jason, a long-repressed model husband who was methodically running away from his wife. Martin Knox, criminal lawyer, was bringing a secret star witness back East: red-headed Lena Karelsen, whose evidence would free his gunman client, smash the political ring. Three people were on Knox's trail: Representative Tom Linscott, mouthpiece of the ring, Newspaperwoman Ada Robillard, once Knox's mistress but now Linscott's fiancee, Private Detective Izzard, whose job was to bribe or kill Knox's witness, whichever seemed best. Knox made Witness Karelsen lie low in her compartment, kept an eye on her as best he could. Unfortunately for his plans, Runaway Husband Jason celebrated his new freedom by taking a drink too many, stumbled into Lena's compartment and continued the party there. When Lena was drunk enough she told Jason everything; they planned to run away to South America together.

True to the conductor's premonition, Magowan's mad driving was too much for the old engine: a side rod let go, flailed the engineer to death. During the long wait for the relief engine Jason and Lena decided to make a run for it to the nearest town. But a railroad detective chased them, shot Lena. Jason's dream of freedom collapsed; he knew he would go home to his wife. Knox's star witness was gone but he got his old mistress back again. The remains of old Magowan, covered with a blanket, were carried in to division point where a testimonial dinner was to have been given him with speeches he had waited 60 years to hear.

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