BOOK NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 82, 5 March 1938, Page 15

BOOK NOTES

“THE STROKE OF EIGHT.” J. L. Hardy, who won a wide and enthusiastic public with his first novel, “Everything is Thunder,” lias in Ins latest, “The Stroke of Eight,” Presented a group of character studies which, combined, go to make up an interesting book. The central figure in the book is a young man who, when liis mother died, inherited the sum of £9O per year. Cedric had enjoyed a public school education. Whatever Ins mother may have been, his father seems to have been a thorough-paced scoundrel who, when his wife died without leaving him an expected legacy, continued to live quite comfortably without visible means of support. Because in 1914 all his acquaintances joined the army, Cedric joined, too. He was a coward at heart, but managed to bluff his way into the graces of his companions just as lie had bluffed his way through school. He had a flair for sensing the mental reactions of those he met and was thus _ immediately able to adjust his attitude to iuit the- situation. He left the army under disgraceful circumstances which, because nothing could be proved, were never exposed. A self-inflicted wound in the leg earned him his discharge. This brief outline of Cedric’s personality will make it easy to understand that he was, of all people in the world, the most dangerous to a man in Gerry’s position. Gerry, mildly drunk, killed a man on liis way home from an army reunion. This man was helping Cedric, to cover the movements of Koroni, a Greek who had murdered a man in a brawl in Rotterdam. Cedric and Koroni were thus in a position to give evidence against Gerry, but, for their own reasons, were anxious to cover up the accident. Cedric, failing to find an easier method of making money, then blackmailed Gerry in most subtle fashion. The story is well written, and cannot fail to interest those who puuse to consider the fundamental causes behind human behaviour.

LONDON MYSTERY

Those who have experienced the peculiarly dense quality of a London “pea-soup” fog wili readily understand how easily the mistake could have been made. The girl in evening dress had already become separated from her aunt’s largo car, although she had been within a few feet of it some seconds earlier. Inspector Macdonald, cruising warily towards the Embankment, saw the rapidity with which a loafer took advantage of the conditions, snatched her bag, and vanished in the gloom. With practised speed lie switched off his engine, dived in pursuit, and restored the hag. Ho then drove his car cautiously towards Scotland Yard. In the few moments which had been occupied by Macdonald’s rescue work a person unknown neatly planted a body in the back of liis car. The body was handsomely disguised as Mepliistoplieles, and it was not discovered until some hours had elapsed. Meanwhile a slender knife, pinning a short excerpt from Berlioz’s “raust” and a siij, of printed verse, was discovered on the back of the car of a wellknown tenor, Jose Caringal. It was thought, later, that the body was intended to accompany the note. Both Mepliistoplieles and Caringal were known to have been at a big charity ball at the Excelsior that niglit, but it was not until two more deaths had occurred, and many strange facts revealed that the murderer was convicted. Mr Lorae writes with verve and humour. He unfolds an absorbing plot, and his characterisation is good throughout. He presents his readers with a genuine.puzzle which is solved logically without the introduction of overmuch extraneous matter. Motives, clues, unc( red herrings are oi commendable variety. “NORTH-WEST PASSAGE.” Told in a free, swinging style, and in the first person, Kenneth Roberts’s “North-west Passage” is as fine an adventure story as wo have had for a long while. It is rich in colour and action, varied in characters, and is sot in a period of American history—that of the English-F’rench wars for Canada and the years immediately following—which best provides the historical novelist with material for an exciting tale.. ■

The central character is Major Rogers, a noted Indian fighter, whose exploits in the French wars for Canada won him great fame, and whose ambition it was to find a north-west passage, not - by way of the sea north of Hudson Bay, but by crossing North America from the east to the west. This Rogers is really, from a literary point of view at least, a most interesting figure. In war, or in any enterprise calling for courage, endurance, and extreme hardihood, he could not be excelled. In peace, another aspect of his character emerges; he is financially unscrupulous, a heavy drinker, a man of flagrantly immoral conduct. Mr Roberts has shown, with equal veracity, both sides of this amazing man’s character. Nearly seven hundred closely-print-ed pages of adventure may seem a lot. But one can say with confidence that those readers who have the faintest taste for this kind of story will not find “North-west Passage” boring in any part. “THE FALCON MYSTERY.” Described as a “boys’ book,” “The Falcon Mystery,” by S. S.. Smith, is good reading for people of any age who enjoy a well-written action story with a definite flavour of the unusual about it. The scene is the great plain of Hungary, the heroes Stefan and Bela Pogany, two young Magyars, expert horsemen and herders and devotees of the ancient sport of falconry. Indeed, it is their love of falcons which brings them into conflict with the nobleman Sigemund Rakoezy, and which provides the plot of the story. Mr Smith has drawn an attractive and convincing picture of the wild, free life led, even in this present age, by the herders of this part of Central Europe. Their vigorous and independent outlook is admirably reproduced. It is in writing of falconry, however, that he is at his best. He knows his subject . thoroughly, and has succeeded in giving quite a lot of space to it without ever becoming boring. Indeed his explanations —given as part of the story—of the capturing, training, and flying of falcons are one ot the features of the hook. _ There is nothing pretentious about “The Falcon Mystery.” As had been said, it is labelled as a boys’ book. In writing it, Mr Smith has set out to tell a good tale of mystery and adventure. He has succeeded.