Comes July

THE FLAMES OF TIME (374 pp.)--Baynard Kendrick--Scribner ($3).

At the beginning of the 19th Century, Artillery Armes (that is the name the author has wished on him) gets mixed up in Florida's trouble under Spanish rule. Golden-haired Artillery works as a U.S. secret agent, but he is pretty confused about which side he is on. The reader will share his confusion. But nothing much is left unexplained about Artillery's love life: he oscillates between fair, proud Beth (daughter of a wealthy merchant) and dark, passionate Dauna (a slave girl). In the big emotional climax, after buying Dauna in a slave mart, Artillery whips her for calling him "Master."

Author Kendrick, a well-known whodunit writer (Blind Man's Bluff), now apparently setting out for bigger game, has bagged it. This cliche-clogged historical novel is the July choice of the Literary Guild.

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