SOME NOVELS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 117, 13 November 1926, Page 21

SOME NOVELS

MASTER CEOOK STO.HY

"Fantomas Captured..-"'". ByMarcel Al- ' lain. London: Stanley Paul and Co.

The mysteries of the Paris underworld are" well dealt with in "Fantomas Captured," another 61; the exciting detective stories by Marcel Allain. Fantomas'is a master crook, who seeks to get the Minister of Finance under his thumb by. a brilliant coup, and who has the whole of-Paris in a state of terror by his cleverly executed crimes, and diabolical revenges on those who *seek to thwart his schemes. Fandor, a brilliant though irresponsible young journalist, who has helped the police to -unravel more than one ingeniously covered crime, and Juve, a head of x'oliee disgruntled at the success with which Fantomas eludes his men, put their heads together to bring him to book, and suddenly aro plunged into a maze of wonderful adventnres. In a truly French spirit of admiration for each other, the lawful men and the rogue play a deadly duel extending over some mouths before Fantomas is taken in a realistically described battle in an ancient tomb. The poisoning of the entire staff of a big banl: and its customers, who are found-sitting in their places stupifled by, gas, is only one of the many colossal crimes planned, by Fantonias,- who is aided by a mysterious Englishwoman of title, "Lady Beltham,'' whose tragic story gives a pathetic touch to her association with the master criminal. Juve has been sacked, -and Fandor has been pushed out of the police before Fantomas is caught, but both aro reinstated with honours.

"Passing the' Love of Women." By Giuseppe Bianco. London: Cassell and Co. ■ "

The author, who hides his identity under the norn de plume of Giuseppe Bianco (author of "Middlemen") submits in "Passing the Love of AVomcn" a sterling tale of brother love. It is also a pitiless piece of character dissection, and those who read will admit the undoubted power with which the author has taken an unusual theme. The love between Steve and Hal Morthead tranace.ndcd the sex appeal of the women who appear in their lives, and to the end the protective instinct of Steve for the weakling is staunch and true to itself. Hal from youth had suffered from an obscure form of mental disease; ho was hag-ridden by the horror ,of quick dispatch—death from a swift cricket ball, from a horse's kick, a fall whilst climbing—and consequently took no part in those games peculiar to boyhood, and so necessary to the^making of men who accomplish things. Hal was never destined to lead; his was a charming enough personality, but weak, though Steve understood finely the complications of his nature and was a buffer between the lad and his bogy of fear from tho earliest days of their association. Much that was un-English in Hal's make-up is satisfactorily explained to the reader when tho accident of his birth and his adoption by the Mortheads (the husband an exdiplomat and the wife a charming example of English motherhood) is made known, but it is all the more remarkable that such a man (without bloodtic) could inspire the love he did in Steve. The story takes one through 'Varsity days, crowded with incident— and incidentally tho author has somothing to say about the education system that keeps a boy at college till he

reaches the twenties. Steve's self-ab-negation in giving up thoughts of a Navy career had its compensations, for in the farm life that he chose, so as to be handy to Hal,:, he found full expression of his ptfetic soul in brown earth, hedge-skirted fields, the trees, birds, life pulsing to fruition, brooding silences, storm and sunshine —Nature's manuscript open for all to read. ■ A book to be sought after.

"The Red Gods Call." By C. E. Scog-

gins. London: Cassell and Co,

This book contains exciting adventures of Howard Pressley, who is induced, without any previous experience, to go to Mexico to try to get a big mahogany concession from a very shaky republic. Incidentally he gets mixed up in Mexican revolutions. Pressley is represented as a good man in buying and selling, and wins tl#ough on that account, but he is extraordinarily credulous in other matters, and lands himself in very remarkable circumstances. He begins his story with an account of how he rescued a "hobo" from off , a through train at Milo, Indiana, and instead of letting the police take charge of him, takes him to his own hotel, arrays him in evening dress, dines and wines him, and takes him to call on Martha, his own beautiful fiancee. The hobo, Gus Hardy, tells in most picturesque language a story of the wild South American country; Martha listens spellbound, and Pressley is so thrilled that when he gets the offer of a trip to Guatemala to secure the mahogany concession, he takes the chance and the train to the enchanted regions. Gus Hardy rather obviously cuts him out with Martha, and Pressley has to seek a lady-love later, and under very different circumstances. Colonel Ben Murchison, a mild-mannered, peaceful, .gentle sort of person, turns out to be a fire-eater of the moßt courageous description, and also a "persona grata" with the President of the Eepublic. After humbugging himself about "Uncle Ben" and missing some'< good chances, and also nearly getting himself and Ben murdered, Pressley takes his advice, and his adventures assume a less gory and more profitable turn. The book is full of adventures from cover to cover; and with these some exceedingly fine descriptive work of the country of South America. The" ancient remains of great civilisations are mentioned interestingly, and the wonderful forest country is done ample justice, with picturesque result. The book would probably interest men and boys more than the other sex, but it is breezy and readable for all.