NEW NOVELS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18885, 6 December 1924, Page 4 (Supplement)

NEW NOVELS.

" The Missing Million "—(John Long), by Edgar Wallace. —Murder and mystery seem to have replaced love as the dominant theme in the popular novel of the day, and Edgar Wa! ace with his finger on the pulse of the public like a fashionable physician is always ready to make up palatable doses of what the patient'wants. In " The Missing Million," nearly every chapter ends so automatically with the murder, disappearance, or reappearance of some prominent character in the story that we can hardly feel surprised when the gallant band of survivors, women in-

cluded, treat such incidents as part of the daily round. The plot ■is competently constructed, the villains' conversation is far more natural than we expect from villains in fiction, bat it is painful to our national pride to learn that the art of " straightening" (thieves' argot for bribery) is practised with somo success upon the high priests of that holy of holies, Scotland Yard. We prefer to believe that such practices are confined to the United States of America.

" The Nameless Order" —(The Bodley Head), by " Dargon"—More murder, more mystery, but this time no money in the casa Codes .and ciphers, secret signs, shameless sire.ll3, ancient cults and horrible orgies ail play their past in this sensational story. But as with so many books that hint at sinister forces of incalculable evil!, the denouement is relatively tame, and in spito of all, the hero, as incredibly plucky and as incredibly stupid as most of the breed, wins out in the end, and weds the beautiful and virtuous daughter of a wicked conspirator. The awful risks fho average hero Aim in the matter of impossible "inlaws" is another proof of his innate heroism. -

" Behold this Dreamer"—by Fulton C'ursler (Fisher Un'.vin) — a 'Mirst novel" distinguished by real originality of concaption and unusually vigorous treatment. The "dreamer, with his inarticulate aspirations toward perfect forms of beauty, has by mischance married into the family of a brush manufacturer, with the additional shackles of a jo a in the brush factory. The first crisis develops from .his romantic interlude with a girl who sterns to personify one of hin dreams, but shatters the illusion by usii.g rouge. "Can you imagine Venus with a ■ ip-stick ? Can you fancy Aphrodite powdering her nose or Juliet with a depilatory. . . . I. know that I am a fool, but I did seek in you the perfect thing—and I found a lip-stick! Just an- .

other dream gone to smash!" Intensely practical folic, his relations failed to un-

derstand the young man's iantasies, and with the best, inten-

tions, entrapped him in a private asylum. His escape and flight to New York, and the final realisation of his ambitions round cut a l ernirk-

able story. It le»v«*j an impression of nerplexity. Tie insurgency of ideas, the insolently unconventional language, and the brilliant pictorial passages make the book remarkably attractive, but the author's real purpose is not. manifest. He is, frankly, grimly satirical at times; there is nt least a suspicion that his satire is keenest when it, is veiled in sympathy. "Stella Defiant" —liv Clare Sheridan (Duckworth) — The first chapter suggests a story of piquant interest. Stella is the daughter of a big Irish landowner, rail olf superstitions and theories, of 'which the' chief is astrology, the father plans a horoscope for has daughter and selects a Russian dancer for her mother, only to have hi 3 carefullylaid plans distorted hv her birth a few hours earlier than the calculated celestial conjunctions. Much *■•■> same degree of distortion intrudes in the story just fails to realise the ui-omiso of its opening. At first, Stella's career is in keep-

ing with the cential theory. She develops a sympathy with Irish republicanism, and is one of the first victims of the fire mania. Then comes a complete break. Upon only the slenderest justification, she is transported to Berlin, cast into the colony of Russian refugees, and gradually develops into an artist and a Communist. She lives in a strange company of Whites and Reds, the principal figure being a Turk, attache of the Ottoman embassy, for whom in the end she renounces Communism to go with him to Constantinople. Post-war politics form the background of the story, and some notable figures in recunt history appear in roles that do not conceal their identity. The book has striking qualities; its weakness is in the central character, for Stella's actions are

too inconsistent with reality. She is almost the only woman in the story, and is fantastic; most of the men seem to be unbalanced, if not crazy. They are supposed to embody "the post-war spirit." The final impression upon a dispassionate mind will be that if this is a reliable picture of modernism, modernists in art, politics and morals have taken that fatal step beyond genius.