MODERN FICTION

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 11, 12 July 1930, Page 21

MODERN FICTION

TRYING TO SUIT ALL TASTES

Production of fiction seems overwhelming. Every mail brings parcels of novels, and it is quite evident that publishers are endeavouring to suit all tastes, meet every requirement of the great and growing market for fiction — any sort of fiction. It is impossible for reasons of space adequately to review every novel received, and in any case brief mention only is permissible with most of them. The novels referred to herounder arc selections from parcels received from the. publishers. "The Return, of Trass, "by John Chancellor (London: Hutchinson), is a tale of 'the superman." Frass is disclosed as a peaceful South Sea trader with a plump and phlegmatic wife. He has occasional taffrail regrets for a former hectic life of adventure. A fog and a chance lucky shot from a man-of-war pnt him on the track of a madman with ideals or' world brotherhood to be attained by conquest of .the British Empire. A dark, and lovely girl comes into the picture, and there are fights aplenty. Imagination sums up a secret invasion of Great Britain, which is frustrated by Frass. From the same publishers is received "The Virgin Widow," by Jocelyn Foxci-oft. This is a story set in Devon. The widow is pursued by more than one suitor, but she chooses a rotter. A startling solution is found amidst the witchery of the shady lanes. "The Beach of Atonement," A. W. Upfield, tells how Arnold Dudley deliberately waylaid and shot'his wife's seducer, takes to the bush, and makes atonement which amply redeems his having taken the law into his own hands.

From Cassells is received ■ Lennox Dryden's amusing tale of the life of the noveau . riche, in his latest novel "Ancestors." Mr. Halybot and his family, having made their pile during the war, buy the ancestral homo of tho Earls of; Pomfret in London. Good-naturedly and with tho best intentions they proceed to improve their social standing, by acquiring ancestors. Mr. Halybot fakes them with amusing results, and tho. ultimate discovery of tho hoax provides entertaining reading.

"Barren Corn," by Georgette 1 rover (Longmans, London). When Hugt Salinger, scion of a noble line, married Laura Burton, a dressmaker's assistant, the two families were not as easily joined. To Hugh there appeared no way out, to Laura just one way aud she took it. •

"Love's Wild Geese, by Jack Kahane (Richards, London). A racy novel of French women wha regard marriage as a business and English women who place business first. It. is entirely a love story with the implications of tho word "love" considerably extended.

"Doctor Mephisto," by .1. Joseph. Eennud (Hutchinson: London) is a double murder mystery, in which the author has evidently been influenced by Edgar. "Wall. cc. The story, however, is well .written and well worked out, and interest is sustained to the last page.