"THE TALE OF TIMBER TOWN"

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLV, Issue XLVIII, 11 August 1914, Page 4

"THE TALE OF TIMBER TOWN"

SUCCESS OF A NELSON AUTHOR

It was really "The Tales of a Dying Race" thai. established Mv A. A. Grace as an. author. His latest success publication in cheap edition ol "The Talc of Timber Town," which wo have just- received from the publishers. It. takes a good book to' reach tho cheap edition stage, which means that, wido circulation alone can male© the publication .profitable, and Nelsonians will congratulate Mr Grace upon his success. It is a story of the gold-digging days. lb opens at a time when Timber Town—a typical New Zealand mining .town of the 'sixties—is on. the verge of a*gold* mining boom, and forthwith the reader is plunged into a sensational drama, in which garish scene succeeds garish scene, tragedy succeeds comedy, and laughter succeeds tears. Tfc is also the story of what %vas perhaps the greatest crime ever committed in New Zealand ; but the narrative of that crime is subordinated' to the main feature of tho talc, which is connected with the fortunes of the chief character, Benjamin Treseo, goldsmith and igold-huyer, who', complex in nature, fallible, Wt lovable, brings himself within the clutches of tho law, and yet redeems himself by an act of audi self-sacrifice as earns the forgiveness of the rough, but generous, comrnunify of Timber Town. But the talc does not depend for its interest merely on the tragical side of life. There is comedy in almost every chapter, in the doings and sayings of the purseproud "old identity, Mr Crewe. Timber Town's millionaire"; o'f the goldsmith's comical apprentice; of the gruff, . but kindly, Pilot of Timber Town, Captain Summerhaycs, of Bill the Prospector, who brings such good fortune to- the ■town; of all save the villains tho piece, oud of, -perhaps, the tragical character of Gentle. .Annie. The romance of Jack Scarlett runs through the narrate, and is associated closely •with Anuria, the brave Maori girl who saves jhim -from the wreck of "Tho Morsey Witch, with Rachel Varnhagen, the ticli Jew's pretty daughter, and with Rose Summerhaycs, the Jbeautiful nnd gentle heroine of the storv. To tell how 'Scarlett- becomes involved in the crime and tragedy which form the strength of the plot., would bo to spoil the story for the reader. Jt is enough to say that ill his fate and fortune, in the'life on the oJ.Cffings. in the vicissitudes of tho erring but. cheery goldsmith, in the. multitude of minor .characters, all drawn s iarply from the ,life, and in the stirring Jtfe of limber Town, the reader's inter" est- will be absorbed from beginning to J*!!. 1 lc author's manner °; t dl "'S," ls stol '.y is chiefly by means of the dialogue of his characters." In this way the story may be said to tell itself and the telling is direct, devoid of superflu our descriptions, crisp and effective