SOME RECENT NOVELS HISTORICAL ROMANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 147, 23 June 1934, Page 24

SOME RECENT NOVELS

HISTORICAL ROMANCE

A good novel recently published by Cassells is "Jonathan Bishop," by Herbert Gonnau. It is an uncommon story about a" rarcly-deseribcd period of modem history. Jonathan Bishop, the hero, was a young American who found himself in Paris in the closing days of the "golden Second Empire."' But people were beginning to realise that the gold was only tinsel, and wearing rather thin at that, Jonathan iiad come to France full of democratic ideals and hopes for the future of the world, for in Paris he saw'"The Cradle of the Revolution"; birt lie, had not been there long before the Jfraneo■Pruseian War broke out, the Empiro crashed to defeat, and, for a brief period, the people in whom, he had placed all his hopes came into power establishing the Commune and thus shattering his ideals. This novel is filled with brilliantly-depicted scenes. There is the Court of Napoleon 111 and his beautiful Empress Eugenia, the thundering of the battle of Sedan, the mobbing of the Tuileries, the Empress's romantic escape, the bombardment of Paris and all the oxeitement that followed theron. /

"Girl About Town," by Bonce Sbann (Collins), is about a pretty young girl Anne Hartley, who is faced on the death of her parents with the alternatives of becoming a poor relation in tho country-house of her old-fashioned Aunt Alicia, or of earning her own living. She chooses the latter, and. with tho aid.of her friend Felicity AVinton obtains a job as a fashion model with Martello's.' Sho falls in love with a very attractive, good-looking young man, llobm Gun tor, who asks her to many him. Robin is entirely dependent on his wealthy parents, and when his mother, a hard, ambitious woman, learns of. his "entanglement" with Anne, she calls on tho girl and angrily tolls her that she must not see Bobin again. Anne is heartbroken, but a year passes, and sho moots Peter Foster, a young publisher, at a house-party at her aunt's at which Robin's engagement to her cousin Muriel is announced. The author skilfully unravels the ensuing love tangle. / ' .

"Island Magic," by Elizabeth Gouclge (Duckworth), is a very pleasant tale about the Channel Islands in the nineteenth century, when they were still a world to themselves, more French than English, and the little island where the dv Frocqs lived was peculiarly rich iii natural beauty and old customs. It is the story how the. lovely Eaehell dv Frocq secured a stranger from the sea to save her farm from ruin and preserve it as a homo for her husband Andre and their exuberant children, Colin,-Colette, Michelle, Pcronelle, and Jacqueline. Sunshine and storm, picnics and wrecks, love and second sight, and death all have their part in this drama of human beings. ' Vicki Baum's latest novel is-called "Falling Star" and is published by Geoffrey Bles. It is a story of Hollywood, but the characters are as a wholo too impossible to be taken seriously. Two books recently published by Collins arc "Love and Forget," by James Wedgwood Drawbell, and "Glitter," by Philip Macdonald. The former is a collection of very readable stories, while the latter is a distinctly amusing talc. "Money Buys Everything" is a dramatic story by Roy Viekcrs (Herbert Jenkins).

A cheap edition of "Grecnbanks," the popular novel by Dorothy Whipplo, has recently been published by John Murray. Of this story, when it was first published in 1932, Hugh. Walpole wrote that it was "the best creation of living men and women that we have had for. a number of years in thb /English novel." The same firm' has also issued cheap editions of "Bed Silence" and "Storm House," both by Kathleen Norris. MURDER AND MYSTERY. "Poison For One" is the sinister title of John Rhode's latest mystery story. This is a Crime Club publication, recommended as tho book of the month, and it certainly presents an ingenious and baffling poison drama. There is a sound plot, a well-knit process of reasoning, and a solidly satisfying solution. ' -...■■. Another mystery novel with an ingenious plot is "Death Meets the King's Messenger," by Gilbert Collins (Geoffrey Bles). He was murdered while on a journey in a motor-coach between London and Southampton, and the polieo of two countries were particularly anxious to solve the mystery of his death.

"The Outcast of Lazy S," by Eli Cotter, is another Geoffrey Bles publication. In this story of rough ranch life a pretty young wife is shot mysteriously. Suspicion fastens on tho wrong man, but finally the real murderer is found and is summarily dealt with. ■-..■-. "The Cry iiji tho Valley," by G. K. Cowan (Herbert Jenkins), is a baffling stor^ of strange murders committed in a wild part of Wales. It is logically worked out as a mystery story and as well written as most tales of this kind. Two other murder "stories that will entertain hxo "There's Death in the Churchyard," by William Gore (Harrop), and "Murder in Mayfair," by John G. Brandon (Methuen).