HOLIDAY FICTION

SOME LATEST NOVELS In "Head of tho Wind," by Lesley Storm (London: Cassell and Co), one meets Stephanie Lucas, who was confronted with disaster in her homo life, when her father married his housekeeper. But when disillusionment loomed large on the horizon, her self-reliance did not desert her. Family influences and tragedies, mistakes and passions, and tho cominonplaco happenings of everyday life weave themselvss into a not which all but engulfs Stephanie and the rest of the family. But in the end all works out. well, and Lesley Storm makes a clever story out of it all, interest being well sustained until the unexpected climax. Lesley Storm made a reputation for himself by "Lady, What of Life?" and this he has added to by his latest novel. An absorbing Mystery. "Six Minutes Past Twelve," by Gavin Holt (London: Hodder and Stoughton), tells how when Sammy Dubeync, the apparently prosperous country gentleman and racehorso owner, was found sr- a revolver clenohed in his hand, tho caso was to all appearances one of suicide. The police, at any rate, thought so at first, but not so the Professor. Who tho dead man really was, and how he acquired his money, and how tie came tc his untimely cud, and not altogether undeserved end, takes up 300 pages of "Six Minutes Past Twelve," which is as exciting and well-worked out a3 any of tho numerous mystery yarns and. detective tales that arc devoured by the public. Artists in Crime. "The Three Crows," by John Hunter (London: Cassell and Co., through Whitcombe and Tombs), concerns a trio of evil brothers, and each a'type. Matthew, "thin and groy, with the thinnest, wickedest lips you ever saw," grim, hard as steel; Mornington, addieted«to snuff and giggling, inclined to regard crimo with levity; Montague, unctuous, bland, and hypocritical. Their machinations provide a theme full of breathless moments and thrilling horrors. There is humour, too, in this very readable story. Briefly, the three Crows determine to secure a fortune to which they are entitled only in the event of tho death of two other heirs whose whereabouts are a mystery. They stop at nothing, not even at organised murders. But right and justice ranged against them in the person of a young lawyer, Tony Stevens, and love, too, takes a hand when Tony meets Virginia Telford, an intended victim of the Crows.