THREE NOVELS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 34, 8 August 1925, Page 17

THREE NOVELS

"The Dark - Power," by, Louis Joseph Vance; "The Jealous Keys," by Florence Mills Youn.i; "The Crucible," by Sinclair Murray. All from Geoffrey Blcs, London.

Dabblers in the occult will read " The Dark tower" with avidity. It is melodramatic in the extreme, and yet all through 'is an excellent piece of literary craftsmanship. Rev. Andrew Streator is the leading character in this story. He comes from the best American stock, and is introduced as arriving at Gosport to lake charge of a church, and there he meets.Dr. Pentecost; a happy agnostic. Streator ,is strictly Calvinistic in his outlook and teaching, but lie has an ungovernable temper, which eventually lands him into serious trouble. Here Dr. Pentecost is' able to help him. But a stronger power than Streator's temper .overcomes him in the end after a terrific conflict. The novel is rather long, but it has several.truse situations that one by one lure the reader on to the end before he or she. realises the fact.

"The Jealous Keys" is a venturesome and difficult study of feminine behaviour in circumstances that would be too much for' most, women.to endure. Ashton and Ursula Wade were happily married and they had a baby boy. The husband was a little jealous of his wife's natural devotion to her child, and said so; but it wa« out of genuine affection for his wife rather, than envy of the first place in her heart occupied by the baby. Then ho goes to the war, and although not ■"smashed up" yet is rendered practically a cripple by rheumatoid arthritis. That is not all : he has got a girl into trouble, -and the question is what to do about it. His wife conies to the rescue, taking up the illegitimate -child and looking after the interests of its mother, much to the latter's surprise. The reader is told how "the girl leaned against her pillows and stared at Ursula. The latter's. proposal sounded to her fantastic, incredible, scarcely decent. Ursula's ,attitude throu<rhout had puzzled her. She decided that she must be under the domination of her husband's will. When Ashton had told her that his wife would pee her through, would stand by her, would help in covering things, ehe had listened, incredulous and amazed; when she met Ursula and discovered that she was prepared to do this, she had thought her a fool. But this final decision was something that went altogether beyond her comprehension. She could not believe that she spoke seriously. 'You don't mean that,' she said. 'You wouldn't do that.' 'Yes, I mean it.' But Ursula is loyal to her husband, terrible as is this ordeal; for <at the end she "laid her'face acainst his face, and her tears .fell softly like su,mmer rain upon the parched crust of his embittered feelings." It is a pity so clever a writer as Miss- Mills Young did not select a more wholesome .subject.

There .is something of the style and workmanship of the early Victorian novelist about "The Crucible." Mr. Murray, however, knows how to build up and decorate a story ,and with it to command the attention and admiration of his readers. Marcus King, one of the character studies upon which Mr. Murray has expended much skilful treatment, is bent on keeping Sylvia Danby from the man she loves and who loves her in return. Around these three is built op a fine romance, and the reader cannot rest until he or she is satisfied .that Sylvia is safe in the haven of her dream* after a particularly hard time with-.Marcus King from the time she first met him in the London office. There is a sensational mine explosion described with such dramatic intensity as to thrill the most phlegmatic reader.