BOOK NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 200, 24 July 1936, Page 6

BOOK NOTES

“THE ANGER OF THE NORTH.” The Hebridean Jsles at the beginQ ning of the thirteenth century is the background of John Clayton’s new • novel, “The Anger of the North.” It is ail historic romance full qf colour,. l ~ and once tho dialectical peculiarities! e have been mastered the reader will en- ~ joy tho story. At this period the in- ’ habitants of those remote islands were l_ just beginning to emerge slowly from T tho mists of barbarism. Fierce Vikings v still raided their shores, and enttlo e lifting and piracy were the pastimes indulged in by the young men. Their moral code was simple—none but the brave deserved the fair; the fittest, only, should survive. When the story opens, Rury Bcdaxe, the McNial of Barra, whom seafarers and every harr hour from the Levant to Brittany knew i’ as “The King of the North,” had just 3 returned from a long voyage in search - of FioniKi, his daughter, wiio bad been • kidnapped five years earlier. When lie ■ found her, site refused to be parted - from h/r Spanish husband, and so j Marcos, Fiouna, and the stallion Bal- ! tarsar, from whom Marcos in bis turn i refused to be separated, were brought i aboard Rury's ship and headed for home. The horse proved a nuisance, . and Rury ruthlessly stabbed him and ■ threw his carcase into the sea. For i this, Marcos boro him a bitter grudgo . to the day of his death. The talc of Marcos’s adjustment to : his new surroundings, and ids courage- : ous fight to hold his own against the . barbarous community in which be now . found himself, is not without heroic' and dramatic significance. The main interest lies not in the -story itself, but in the picture of the time and the place. The character portrait of Marcos is also interesting; his comparatively civilised outlook and hearing gives an enlightening view of the vast difference between the development of the people of the north and those of southern Europe at that period. “MAIN LINE WEST.” Mr Horgan’s new novel, “Main Line West,” the story of the begetting and upbringing of a child in the American West, is a most accomplished and attractive piece of work, says the Loudon Times. He knows his characters and draws them concisely but livingly —Daniel Milford, the travelling salesman, who marries the (by nature- and nurture) virtuous Irma and deserts her, not long before her child’s birth, never to reappear again ; Danny, the child ; more posing friends and neighbours. For years Irma supports herself and Danny by running a restaurant in a small Californian town, then she becomes an evangelist, moving from “call” to “call,” preaching at first successfully, then disastrously. Air TJorgan toils it evenly and effectively. BOOTH TAR,KINGTON. Air Booth Tnrkington has for long shown that he can be- depended on for light and skilful entertainment. His most recent novel deals with a group ] of youngish matrons and their spouse: in a fiat building. One of the husbands becomes involved with a woman artist ; and a wife similarly errs. The other j families allow their interst to become \ Lilly engaged in the affair and a mem- j her of one of them, it turns out, was s at one time more than ordinarily i friendly with the artist’s husband. Out i of the situation the writer draws an s interesting story and ail unexpected p denouement. Ho is a “safe” author; r he plumbs no depths and ascends no I heights, and notwithstanding the na- i turc of his theme ho circumspectly' p

avoids anything that might offend pro r j pricty. The story takes place in an unnamed American city and. except that the flat families are on more intimate terms than is customary here, it might have happened anywhere. e “RODEO.” t From the many stories and sketches V of the late R. B. Cunninghame Gra- “ hame, Mr A. F. Tschiffley has selected - fifty that he considers the best, to compose a volume with the title L ‘ “Itodeo.” By this moans it is hoped 1 to make more widely known to Eng- * lish readers works which are to he found even in the remotest parts of ~ South America. Apparently, Grahame, 3 unlike Hudson, never wrote his autobiography, but it can be pieced tov gether from his stories, which are all f of actual experience, whether his own - or that of someone with whom ho was ? acquainted. But their range is not t merely South America; Mexico, Spain, 1 Morocco, England also provide his i scenes. The characters sketched and put before us at some period of their 1 interesting careers, when they usually > show themselves in action, are of the most diverse kinds—lndians, Hispanic--1 ised Scots, other Europeans of all pro- , Sessions, living in or passing through Spanish America, rogues, adventurers, ' Arabs——all treated with that large . humanity which makes the author the , most interesting figure in all his gallery. > ' “FORGOTTEN OF ALLAH.” ’' Lady Grcssida Stenson has some , amazing and somewhat improbable adventures while on holiday in India. Ihe much-written-of Simla is, of course, the background for her social activities, but most of her time is spent ; at forts and stations much nearer the border. Her lover, Otho Mulnar, handsome, temperamental, and of ltus-sian-American parentage, provides a plentiful supply of incident and intrigue. He also supplies the author with a peg upon which to hang quite a lot of moralising, and warnings to vain and : spoiled young men. Otho is a flying ace, and through sheer self-drama'tisa-lion he becomes involved in a very Tinsavoury affair with a Russian spy in the British camp. Captain Colin Grice is the hero of the story, and bis adventures with Lady Grcssida, while disguised as a groom, form a romantic undercurrent which eventually entirely swamps Otlio’s sentimental vapourings. The descriptions of frontier life, through slight, are full of colour. “Forgotten* of Allah” is free from affectation, and has sufficient action to provide a few hours’ light entertainment. TRENT AGAIN. After a long period of years, E. C. Bentley, this time in collaboration with H. Warner Allen, has brought back to the world of detective fiction Philip Trent, artist and solver of mysteries. Unlike ma'ny authors who resurrect heroes after having had them make their final bow to the public, Mr Bentley bus invented a plausible excuse for having Trent collaborate once more with the police: not only is old James Randolph murdered shortly after the artist had visited him, hut Trent’s most intimate friends are involved. and, worse, only a fortuitous eircu'nstance prevents Trent himself falling under suspicion. The story and its denouement have been thought out by one who has the technique of the mystery story at his finger-tips. Coincidence plays no part in the solving of the crime, nor are blatantly false clues left clumsily about in the hope, of bemusing the reader. Very few will suspect the identity of the criminal until

the story is reaching its end, but that is because of the author’s craftsmanship in this type of fiction; the real clues are all there. AYol] written, and i with passages which will recommend i themselves to lovers of good stories, this is the kind of detective story which 1 can he enjoyed by all.