Recent Mysteries

THE ONE THAT GOT Mc CLOY -- Helen AWAY-Helen William Morrow ($2). The aggressively erudite author of Panic has boned up this time on the ancient Picts, the psychology of juvenile delinquency and Poe's Purloined Letter. She turns it all into a pretty exciting chase across the Scottish moors. When it's all over, the critical reader may feel as trapped as the villain by the plot's hard-to-believe major premise. Verdict: very good.

"RE: SHERLOCK HOLMES," THE ADVENTURES OF SOLAR PONS -- August Derleth--Mycroft & Moron ($2.50).

This literary descendant of the Master deserves the nostalgic sighs his exploits will bring from most died-in-the-red Baker Street Irregulars. Readers who do not genuflect before No. 7 will note that Detective Pons shares his prototype's shortcomings along with his virtues: his puzzles aren't always puzzling and his Dr. Watson is more ponderously thick headed than is absolutely necessary. Ver dict: good.

THE DEAD LIE STILL -- William L.Stuart --Farrar & Rinehart ($2). Sam Talbot managed to be both a $30,000-a-year artist and a hard-drinking, indestructible private detective: "A big rough-look ing guy with dark hair. Good clothes.

Money. Probably a little scuffed up around the face." He gives the FBI just the help it needs in a fast-moving roundup of an exceptionally nasty gang. Verdict: good.

THE DEVIL IN THE BUSH -- Matthew Head -- Simon & Schuster ($2). On Hooper Taliaferro's military mission into the Congo he stumbles across a marvelously carved ceremonial knife, two beautiful women and an evil old man. Un fortunately, this fine, assorted bag of jungle specimens includes one moth-eaten item: a thin, conventional plot of seduction and murder that has been used inumpteen whodunits with less glamorous settings. Verdict: fair.

THE WHISTLING LEGS -- Roman McDougald -- Simon & Schuster ($2). The ingredients, are old, old stuff: the detective who leaves his bride on their wedding night, the client who suspects that the suicide is really murder, the wife whose hobby is love affairs, the mysterious house guest and, finally, the newly invented explosive. But it is served up with such a flourish of fresh parsley that you'd hardly recognize it as warmed-over hash.

Verdict: very good.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.