NEW FICTION

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30478, 27 June 1964, Page 4

NEW FICTION

Tribal Town. By Hugh Munro.! Macdonald. 191 pp. This is a Scotland seldom portrayed in plays or novels for here there is no Celtic mist, or picturesque scenery, or handsome Highlander. The story deals with life in a lowland factory town—Rabton —to which Alistair Carrick returns after a short time in Canada. His wife, Joyce, had been homesick and so they came home only to find that there was a housing shortage and jobs were scarce. Although Alistair found work in a factory he. his wife and their two children, had to share Joyce's parents’ council house, and when he went to apply to be put on the waiting list, he was appalled by the corrupt methods used to get houses by those who were by no means as desperate as he. Alistair, the idealist, decided that this was not his method and in spite of his mother’s not altogether scrupulous efforts on his behalf, he refused to go on the waiting list With difficulty, he and Joyce bought a house of their own, the upkeep of which entailed constant sacrifice, while at work he watched the same underhand methods bring promotion and success to many of his mates. At school, Bruce, his son, was refused admission to the High School, although he was tenth in his class and twelve were admitted. Refusing once more to speak quietly to the right man, Alistair complained, and was interviewed in vain, and the disappointed Bruce had to take a technical training. Finally, when his daughter reached the age of entering University and money was scarce, Alistair, at a family wedding, was jockeyed into the position of saying the right word to the right person at the right time. His conscience was anything but clear, but to his family, and the “great” men of Rabton, the provost and councillors, it appeared that he had at last come to his senses. This is a! splendid description of life! in a lowland town. The| characters are very real and'

! down to earth. Life for then is often difficult, yet the author escapes the sordidness which so frequently envelops this type of book. For those who like people and are interested in a true representation of Scottish life, this is an excellent and enjoyable book. The Turning Point. By Corinna Cochrane. Duckworth. 222 pp. The central figure in this account of service life in an imaginary British Crown Colony in the Far East is Hermione Wilding, mother of two small boys and seemingly happily married to her Army husband—Oliver. Writing with an obvious understanding of the false set of values such an existence can create, Corinna Cochrane vividly describes the stresses and strains imposed on a hitherto successful marriage. There is the gradual decline in Oliver and Hermione’s marriage. Her passionate affair with the handsome but shallow Michael Forsyth leads her to “the turning point” when she realises he is as much of an imposter as she has been herself. But by this time, Hermione’s relationship with her husband perhaps drifted too far to mend. Hermione is a weak character whose vague discontents with her own slightly bourgeois existence are fanned to a flame by the unscrupulous Michael. Her story moves to a climax when she deserts Oliver and pursues Michael to England on the pretext of taking her two sons back to school —only to have all her illusions shattered. Michael in his natural environment, she discovered, was not the brilliant social figure she had been led to believe he was and, to make matters worse, he had not been confining his favours exclusively to her. “The Turning Point" will appeal more to women readers, not only because of Her- ■ mione’s emotional experiences, but as an account of life in the exciting and different technicolour world of

ithe tropical Far East. Women readers will particularly enjoy the vivid descriptions of thia romantic if false existence, and will find the character sketches, particularly those of Hermione’s two delightful young sons and their nanny—the indomitable Miss Flint —especially appealing. Someone’s Stolen Nellie Grey. By Ira Walker. Abelard Schuman. 214 pp. This fast-moving thriller would leave many of its competitors limping behind. Nelda Purcell is 17 and has been brought up in an orphanage. At the age of 11, a terrifying experience had turned her hair completely white. But she is as tough as they come, and when a chance encounter with another girl secures her a job in a night-club she seems set on her way to security. However her bad luck in attracting a powerful gangster, and the fact that she brushes him off in front of his friends brings her into great danger. It is easy enough for Vic Mitchums to kidnap the girl, but he has reckoned without the attention! of the police, who know they can arrest him on the ground that she is a minor. The interest in Nellie of two of the police—Steve Rhoden, the aristocratic F. 8.1. agent, and Ralph Costa, the honest young detective—is of a more personal nature. The murder of Mitchums, the girl’s hurried exit from his house, and her agonised attempt to elude his thugs culminate in a chase which ends with a big surprise and some hairbreadth escapes before the happy ending.

No Red Herrings. By Mary Scott and Joyce West. Paul’s Book Arcade. 187 PPA collaboration which has produced plenty of bright dialogue combined with a baffling mystery has proved itself markedly successful, and in their fourth book of this type the authors can be pretty sure of another good seller. Beth Sutherland wins a prize jn a quiz competition which gives her a holiday in Honolulu. There she meets a pleasant young man who at parting begs her to accept a small present in the shape of a piece of costume jewellery. She loses this brooch at the airport, but it is returned to her by a native boy who says he has picked it up. Mysterious happenings herald her return to the New Zealand sheep farm which is her home. A woman, very unpopular in the neighbourhood is strangled: the Sutherlands’ house is burgled, and some money stolen; finally Beth herself disappears during a hunt, and a frantic search for her is put in train. Inspector Wright is called in to investigate these disquieting happenings, and carries his sleuthing to an exciting conclusion. The usual popular characters are all here: Beth’s devoted but inarticulate swain, her smackable young brother and various local worthies keep the pot boiling, and help to solve a neatly-conceived mystery. Murder Is Not Enough. By Bryan Edgar Wallace. Hodder and Stoughton. 223 pp. To extricate himself from a possible charge of a murder committed in his own house with a weapon belonging to him is the invidious task of John Hellier, a young English farmer. The reader and the hero know the murderer, but John’s efforts to prove his innocence only seem to make matters worse. With the help of his girl friend Averil, he does eventually battle through, and too late the murderer finds that murder is not enough.