VARIOUS NOVELS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 140, 14 June 1924, Page 17

VARIOUS NOVELS

"The Timber Pirate." By Charles C. Jenkins. ' London: Duckworth and

Company. (From Whitcombe and Tombs, Wellington.) '•'The Justice of the Duke.". By Rafael Sabatini. London: Stanley Paul and Company. " Miss Parvenue," by Serene Grey; and "Times Have Changed," by Elmer ■ Davis. ■ London and Sydney: Hodder and Stoughton. "Ishmael's Wife," by Roy Vicars; and " The Safety Pin,"' by ■J. S. '/Fletcher. London: Herbert Jenkins.'

" The Timber Pirate "■ is,no other (as it turns out) than a wealthy and most unscrupulous business man (who .would be .called a " Captain of Industry"), with headquarters in comfort at Montreal. His great and implacable opponent is Acey. Smith, timber boss, a hardlooking, dour young man and a genuine Don Quixote in reality. The novelist, who ventures into the Canadian big timber country for material, must be a writer of great, courage or self-confidence, for the country has been ransacked to its utmost corner for local colour/ and it requires some nerve to go , over .even part of it again on the same quest, and bring back treasure with which to interest, delight, startle, and ( thrill _ his readers.■ Mr. Jenkins, in " The Timber Pirate,'' is revealed as a writer of courage and self-confidence, and that view will probably be endorsed by his readers.' He writes well,, wastes no words, keys interest up to breaking point, knows the value of the■■ element of surprise, .and how to catch and sustain the all-important . love ' interest. Business buccaneering forms an imp'ort.ant:part of-the-story, and some of the things 'that^'grip ■ the*' reader- most' in •"■ The Timber -Pirate " read' as if- they were based on fact. What are technically called "red-blooded men" are met with m plenty in "The Timber Pirate." ihere is also to be found a remarK.,mao!e :by the ' writer. that shows his keen in--' 'sight- into modern jtwrnalism' when he describes how a young man was 'prepared to undertake an extraordinary task because—

is,alwa}s behind the scenes, of big things in process, but never, never quite part of them. " The 'Timber Pirate." can be tholoughly recommended as a novel. It is full of adventure, well written, and free trom any taint of sex.

CAPE AND SWORD. 'The Borgia's are introduced to Mr. Katael. babatini's many readers in "The Justice of ■ the Duke," but Cesare of that notorious family predominates in the novel. Some reviewers have likened Mr. Sabatim to Dumas pere. The comparison is- rather far-fetched, but there is no doubt at all about the fertility of Mr. Sabatini's imagination and ; profound-skill- in story-telling. .He is subjective, spends no ink on long-drawn-out descriptions of men and incidents, but. he does grip his reader's interest and hevis always entertaining. ■ To read '!The- "Justice of the Duke" is a pleas;ant _recrea'tion,-.with no tax on' tired ;rmnds and no notions, theories, opinions, or preaching to bother one. Younp.readers will -relish "The 'Justice of. the ,-Uuke as much as middle-aged people. : loose who ( come between may regard it as tame.'—until they have read it'ripht through/ '

AMERICAN HUMOUR. \. The lady who wrote "Miss Parvenue" has adopted the pen name of "Serene BeJ\, IjLreal life she is Mrs- Henry Russell. This, her latest'work, is il gemous and amusing; r at' ■ telJo'-of- a I youa°, ,??H? 01 teacher frol P '» ■'Village named Coif ax, m the Middle West. Her full name, is Amanda Elizabeth Hooper and her home town is Grass Valley To her great surprise she learns that she has come in for a lot of money, and the story consists of how quickly she began to spend it; the people she meets as she makes a sort of pilgrimage de luxe m America and in the Old Worlds "Miss Parvenue has been written to sell, and no doubt it will achieve its purpose. -The story is told- m theform of letters, nTbe°e nn c sileS- 6 *****

the^-tanff Ut\ that h-»d' happened \tiZ novel M^iv g'tK xt K»™ded like : a ten-cent ™I ' w l'^ 80rt of melodramatic stufl one wouldn't, believe could ever happen. The particular reader will think of that passage'when he or she has finished the novel, '-'Miss Parvenue."

The lure of the city for the principal of a country college ought to be a theme worth..developing, particularly as. the attraction' is one of appeal to memory Mark O'RelT in the novel "Times Have Changed," had married a charming' girl and, incidentally, found that suburban relations can be a nuisance. There was an Aunt Cordelia too, who represented the voice of public opinion in Wynwood. ' Life in this garden place was not necessarily exile from New York, but Mark, who went to the city to a fraternity meeting, was glad of a return, if only temporary, to tho haunts of his college days. Bo he met an old journalistic friend, and was enticed to a party at which some questionable, though delightful, ladies were present and they worked their charms on this supposedly unimpressionable holiday maker. His wife Marjorie had deputed him to bring back a quilt, an heirloom much prized by Aunt Cordelia, but the obliging -husband innocent of the worth of the article, had lent.it to a triend. . Iha search for the quilt really supplies all the adventure that the sedate collego principal can wish for; too much m fact, for only after exciting incidents with ox-burglars, who are after some, -valuable diamonds, -the police and %, shady ladi«. v is the dishevelled |-A^tk received into the waßin<r arms of } -understanding Marjorie. Tlie.book <""jf» with a "never-agaiu" cJim«, J&

is good_ reading, humorous to a degree, dramatic in parts, and should be a ready seller.

A BRACE OF THRILLERS.

"Ishmael's Wife" would have' been the wife of -a well-connected Isaac, but for Lord iiontore being the secret father of a child by a domestic servant in the employ of his family. But Mr. Boy Vickers would not tjicn have had a lay figure upon which to hang the habilments of the story now under notice. The son of the bond woman, contrary to the ancient precedent, becomes Lord Montore's heir and a thorough bad lot to boot. He did one good thing when he murdered a blackmailer, but he might have had the decently to declare that it was his victim's not his own body that was found battered at the bottom of a lift well; he might haye prevented the burial of an ignoble criminal, by saying just how the position stood instead of living to make it awkward for his wife (who loathed him from the first), instead of killing a detective and creating a scene in a railway yard by trying to bolt in a locomotive. Ishmael's Wife" will serve to relieve the monotony of a long journey by tram

For publishing well-written "thrillers" the house of Herbert Jenkins is now justly»famous. "The Safety Pin" is but another cleverly-written story of crime and its detection so far as it goes and it goes a long' way. It opens in the office of -Francis D. Shelmore, a solicitor with more tune than clients. To the office comes the attractive Cynthia Pretty, with the news that her guardian and uncle, James Deane, has mysteriously disappeared. His dead body is found m a sand-pit far from his home. Who murdered him? That is the. question that takes some ingenuity in answering; but all is disentangled at last brooks are laid by the heels, blackmail of the deepest dye is effectually dealt with, and the story reads just like a rattling good five-reel film play