THREE RECENT NOVELS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 123, 26 May 1928, Page 21

THREE RECENT NOVELS

" 'Ware tyolf!" by Lascelles Forrester (London: Cassells), is a remark--ablo 6tory of black magic in modern settings. A few villagers in Southern France revivo the cult of the 'Ware Wolves, human wolves who prey on men and women. Mary Graham, a Highland beauty, arouses the evil longing of the chief priest of the cult of the 'Ware Wolves, a man whose activities have already made trouble in all parts of the world, but whose ambition is to destroy civilisation by power of evil. Possessed of a strange occult power, the existence of which is unknown, except tb a few men of science, he sets about his task, forgetting his passionate resolve to possess Mary Graham. But these designs arc frustrated; .how a good man's love is more than conqueror, and society is saved from a more terriblo than war. " 'Ware Wolf!" is a genuine thriller. A Pretty Love Tale. "She must be called Daffodil Jane," said her young dying mother, "growing liko the flowers and without asking why or how, in a lovely garden. All will come to her." The prediction regarding the baby was fulfilled in the novel of that name, by Beryl Symons '(London: Herbert Jenkins). The babe .was brought up at Tarnham Manor, £y Aunt Mirabel, and when she grew up •there were many suitors, but only one who mattered, and he won. Before this happened, however, a great deal of troublo was caused by .Nathaniel Bint, born in Whitechapel, and returned rich from the East, and it was • chiefly through mutually analysing Mr. Bint that Daffodil Jano and Mark became intimate. It is a pretty love story, in which tho good sense of the heroine makes her cling to a much misjudged fellow, ■ Mystery and Humour. "The Clean Hand," by Millie liird Vandcburg (London: CassolJs), opens with a mysterious murder and the suspicious flight of a guest who has been involved in a quarrel between the victim and his wife. Tho suspect is captured and held to ransom by Mexican bandits. This adventure of rescue from bandits is in itself exciting, but the murder mystery is the story. The curious method of the act, tho self-sacrifice of the victim 's wife in confessing the crime, the totally unexpected denouement, make "Tho Clean Hand'1' a story told with skill and a literary power .above tho ordinary "mystery" novel.