"'The Black Gardenia' is quite a book. Elliot Paul undoubtedly had a wonderful time writing it, and in addition to the usual mystery has made it a vehicle for a lot of good English and a lot of interesting information about mysterious Javanese plants, customs, and poisons. "And, we might as well say right now, you as a reader will be [thoroughly] mixed up as to who dunit until very near the last page. "Suffice it to say that three persons die of very...