LATEST FICTION

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 19, 23 January 1926, Page 17

LATEST FICTION

"The Wildings," by Richard Crompton (London: Hodder and Stoughton).— This is a simple .-tale about the inmates of an ugly Georgian house in an ugly little manufacturing town in England. There is a high ideal in the heart of young David Wilding. Uia literary aspirations and love for Hero Mellor, whom he eventually take him to London. The Wildings are quaint folk, most of them making David feel unaccountably guilty in their presence. There is the shop, but being a Wilding shop it is no ordinary place of business. It is a heritage, and behind its counter is a collection of books handed dr>wn from generations of ■Wildings to the younger generation to read and venerate. David hates the shop and hates his people's power to mak>" him enter it He ha« little chanr.fi of'fulfilling the dream of his life, to write, till Hero Mellor. of doubtful birth, but undeniably beautiful, returns from abroad to become his inspiration. Hero doesn't mind being poor, because she j«u»ks poverty *> Mvrv-»>jTMd «cr«ri

is a glory, a flame with the glowing colours of courage and effort and love. David returns home for a brief respite, and it is then that the Wilding strain comes out, for he finds that he loves his home and his people, despite their provincialism. They are at least honest, and he experiences for the first time the thrill of home-coming. In spite of Hero and hor dislikes, her moods and her vnreasonableness, he gladly returns to the shop, and when a younger brother expresses a desire to stretch his wingn Londonwards, David, in his wisdom, advises : "Let him go. He'll come back." So David fulfils the Wilding traditions.'

"The Man All Women Loved," by Ruby M. Ay res (London: Hodder and Stoughton) has fot its theme love at cross purposes. Any novel from the pen of this popular novelist will appeal to girls of all ages, and be read with- interest. There is romance in plenty in this latest novel. It will be devoured with avidity. The love of Patrick Heffron for Mollie. Dawe is a fragrant thing. Despite the confusion of loveless marriages, hopeless affections, and the like there is a happy conclusion, with a note that strikes tragically for some, people in the book.

"Martha the Medium," by Jessie Champion (London: Herbert Jenkins), shows how a glib-tongued cook turned spiritualist with the aid of her husband can fool silly people with more money than sense.

"The Mare of Pandora," by David Grew (London: Hodder and Stoughton) is a lively story of rough life in America, summed up in the sentence, "The first law's y'ur own livin!" as Groven Blake, one of the characters in this novel, puts it. The book is especially addressed "to all lovers of horses." The Ghost Mare is a weird incident in the- story, and is remarkably well described and introduced. "The Mare of Pandora" can be thoroughly recommended as a gripping story by a writer gifted with imagination in liberal measure.

"Carry On, Jeeves!'' by P. G. Wodehouse (London: Herbert Jenkins) is what one would expect from so popular a magazine humorist. Jeeves has been heard of before; he is a particular friend of Mr. Wodehouse, a puppet indeed of the novelist's . own creation. Jeeves is not only' a resourceful valet but designing, yet his fidelity to his employer is unquestionable. He is, too, something of a. despot. Those who enjoyed "The Inimitable Jeeves" will enjoy these further chapters in his history. He was certainly endowed by Mr. Wodehouse with a master mind. The humour in "Carry On, Jeeves," is 'entertaining rather than subtle.

"The Black Company," by W. B. M. Ferguson (London: Herbert Jenkins), abounds in the mysterious situation of a young millionaire making a wager to earn his living by manual labour for a month. After a wild supper party ho drives away to prepare to carry out his wager, but is knocked senseless and his car and clothes stolen. Pressed in the uniform of bis chauffeur, he is discovered by a farmer. He is mistaken by Brcnda Gelette, neice of the fanner, for a new chauffeur engaged by her uncle. He submits to the deception willingly, for Brenda is charming. But he finds himself involved in the sinister secrets of a nefarious gang. The Black King is head of this company, and in solving the mystery of the gang's operations the hero wins the wager and the girl. ;

"The Flying Emerald," by Ethelreda Lewis (London: ■ Hodder and Stoughtori), is a most readable novel. The locale of the tale is a small town in ex-German East Africa. The theft of a valuable green diamond from the" collection of young Johnnie Armstrong is really subsidiary to the tale of the brutality of Herr Carl Sehlosser, owner of the Bierhalle where Mussy Elliott: isa bar-tender. Elliott, though an aristocrat born, is a failure. He has a daughter, Jenny, whose soul is as white as her dear skin. Herr. Schlosaer, with a desire for Jenny unsated, plans to get her into his clutches. The death, of Elliott leaves Jenny with her coloured half-brother, a poor little blind child, but young Armstrong and his frivolous friend Erskine keep- watch: over l.er. Gratefulness to the girl's father for rescue from Schlosscr, revenge for a cruel wrong done him, and love for the girl and her young brother have made the old bushman, Flitt'maus, an implacable enemy of the Hun. In a ' little tin hut, in an area of rolling •and, immense and barren, this domestic drama is worked out to a flappy conclusion.