SOME RECENT FICTION

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3024, 10 March 1917, Page 13

SOME RECENT FICTION

"The Red Mist," by Randall'Parrish (London: Eveleigh Nash; per Whitcombe and ombs, Ltd.) A etory of the American Civil War. Its hero.Tom Wyatt, a sergeant of artillery in the Confederate Army, is dispatched to Western Virginia, then in occupation by Unionist troops, to gs.in information, if ho can, of the Federal commander's plans. Disguised as a Unionist recruiting officer, the hero is rapidly plunged into a veritable whirlpool of dangerous adventure, andl finding in a deserted house an old playmate of his youth, whoso father has been murdered by guerillas, rescues her from being forced into marriage with one of these latter by wedding her himself. Captured and condemned to death as a spy, ho is saved from ignominious death by his own wit and daring, aided by the devotion of the girl he has married and who has learnt to love him. Mr. Parrish packs his pages full of amazing complications and rapidly succeeding soneations, and yet never fails to mako his narrative convincing. M'ithout being in the least melodramatic, the story furnishos a most generous supply of thrills and once taken up the book will not lightly be r/ut down. In its own particular genre, "The Red Mist" is an exceedingly clever production.

"Cruolfixlon," by Newman Flower

(Cassell and Co., per Whitcombe \ and Tombs).

The story of a selfish and heartless actress, who, after being morally, and indirectly, responsible for the death of one of her numerous lovers, and the deserted wife of another, marries a rising j-oung surgeon and goes off with him to the Riviera. Six years later the husband, having discovered that his Guilda is a lady with a decidedly lurid past, leaves her and her socalled "Crucifixion" arrives. As matter of fact, the victim is eo thoroughly artificial a character that it is impossible to feel much sympathy for her. After.an interval of some twenty years, an old lover, at the front, having bogged her to do something useful by corresponding with "a lonely soldier," we arc treated to a long serios of gushful letters. As a matter of fact the "lonely soldier" turns out to be the heroine's own son, andl the discovery of his identity eventually leads to a, reconciliation between the long-separated , husband and wife. The high-flown language of the horoineand the heroics of •her husband are decidedly wearisome, and tho story as a whole has but slight semblance , of reality.

"Love's Law," by Kate Horn (Stanley Paul and Co.), is an agreeably-written, readable story of a clever, young lady, living in a dull suburban milieu, who 'adopts a baby niece, her sister having died as the result of a belated discovery of an -unpleasant episode in her husband's earlier life. The scone soon shifts to a little , Cornish village, where the goodhearted Sally at last meets Mr. Right, only to be persecuted by a rejected asbirant of her suburban days,, who meanly spreads a scandalous report about the gfrl. There is seme sore trouble for poor Sally, but the fates are eventually kind to her, and she. duly marries her faithful admirer, who, of couree, according to latter-day vogue, is a "gentleman in khaki."

"Dartmoor Days With thr Forest Hunt," by J. H. W. Knight-Brucp (John Murray; per Whiicombe and Tombs), is a breezily-written, very jolly story of the hunting field. ' The principal scenes take placo in and around the wild part of Dartmoor, locally known as "Tho Forest," and sport is very much to the fore throughout, although there is a very pleasant admixture of pretty love-making. The story makes a special appeal to readers, in that it was written in a German fortress, . where its author, who was wounded at Landrccie-s, in 'August, 1914, was confined for many months. The hook contains a number of slight but exceptionally woll-drawn sketches, employed as headpieces for its various chapters, by one of tho author's; follow prisoners, Monsieur Picard, a lieutenant in tho 2nd Belgian Lancers. There is a fine- smack and savour of the clear, ■wholosotno Devonshire air in this story, which introduces us to some very pleasant people, and makes very agreeable reading. (Price 65.)

"A Mrs. Jones," by Mrs. C. S. Peel

(London, John Lane). Mrs. Pool, who may bo remembered as the author of those two capital stories "Tho Hat Shop" and "Mrs. Barnet-llobes," is as amusing as ever in her new story. Her heroine, Dot Quomby, is left almost penniless by tho death of her easy-going, selfishly spendthrift father, a retired colonel, but makes a homn with some relatives, and eventually marries a highly respectable but somewhat tepid husband in Mr. Cedrio Jones. Mrs. Peel cleverly develops the wife's character as tho story proceeds, and bv tho timo the rather helpless husband's father has died, a ruined man, and Cedric and Dot have to facfc life afresh on . a much attentuated income, the wife has become (i singularly self-contained and Ftilf-reliant little person, who makes a succoss of the business venture into which she enters. Eventually, she •rets "nervy," and goes on a trip to IWndcira. whore she moots a lover of her youth, the fascinating Larry FarnuhiiT. Vnr a while there is grave da'iTor .of the all unconscious and sfnrlrry Oedric baviiiji to deplore it wiffilv .infidelity, hut Hie heroine's better self nseo'ts itself, and she duly f'eturtis to London and her wifely dut''.-«. ns indeed, a. woman of forty would be wise in doing. A lively, amusing story, with much satirical comment upon modern society life.

"The Spring Song," br Forrest T?oid

(London: Edward Arnold), is a very original and woll-written story, tlio special feature of which is the author's s,tudy oC a quite abnormal

child named Grif, to whom tho voices of tho troes and winds, which, with his curious sympathetic rnture, the child alono oC his playmates can hear, aro moro attractive than tho usual pastimes of childhood. Thcro is an impossible ]>orson, a madman, who plays an important part in poor littlo Grif's montal development, and many readers may ?.nd tho story, in certain of its opisides, too morbid to be altogether pleasaift. But the author thoroughly understands tho ordinary, as well as the abnormal, child nature, and there aro somo very jolly children in his book. Some of the grown-ups, notably a kindly rdS parson, devoted to folk lore studies, and the eccentric Captain NarcTssus and Kis sisters, aro cleverly drawn. The story ends on a note of pathos, but that, I suppose, was inevitable. Mr. Reid has written a very out-of-the-way ancrarresling story. "Hearts and Faces," by John Murray Gibbon (London: John Lane) Mr. jTurray Gibbon's powerful story of artistic and BoTiemian lifo in London and Paris was reviewed 1 «xt length in these columns several months ago. It is only necessary to recommend it once again to my readers as a very original and striking story, specially interesting to lovers of art.