HE ARRIVED AT DUSK

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 102, 11 April 1933, Page 9

HE ARRIVED AT DUSK

Sy R. C. ASHBY. (Hodder and Stoughton.) If you will not pay too much heed t* probabilities or possibilities, and if yo* like the kind of story that mystifie* you for a long tune and then take* almost as long to give a detailed "clearing-up” of the whole business, then you will certainly enjoy this story. It is a “spook” yarn, pure and undefiled. The whole thing is rank nonsense, and yet the story is readable from end to end. In spite of th* author’s repudiation of tne "slender thread of romance” with which we ar* all so familiar, and in spite of his assertion that it is not to be found tn this book, the reader will be blind indeed who fails to find it and to rejoice in it. The little lady whose sparkling conversation fills a good number of pages is utterly delightful, and if it were only for the pleasure of meeting her. the reader’s time would be well spent. , As for the story, it has to do with the reappearance of the alleged ghost of a Homan soldier with a fondness for inurdei and other entirely physical activities. From the beginning th* reader does not believe in tin ghost, but the author disguises the rial culprit with sufficient skill to give ■ few thrills at the end of the book. Th* end. it may bo said, is rather 100 iinoly drawn out. Oneo the mystery is dome of the minute explnm. nidi.