Stewartry

I was dubious about The Mind-Readers; I didn't remember much about it.  I apparently read through the Allinghams years ago (ten?) and never since – I hadn't thought it to be so long.  My impression of MR was of an improbable, not to say idiotic, premise, and a slight reluctance to read it.  Happily, I was mostly wrong.  It was an improbable premise – but it was handled very nicely.  This was written in the 60's, which I happily missed entirely but for four short oblivious months; 1965 to be exact – the Space Race was on, science was exploding in every direction, science fiction was coming to the fore – it seems like if someone had said "I have invented a device that will allow me to read minds" it wouldn't have been so very surprising.  There was an element of World Criminal Conspiracy, which is something I despise, but I found the characters to be enjoyable, the suspense involved in the kidnapping (or was it?) to be well managed, and overall the book to be a lark.  Not one of the best – but not bad.