RAPID REVIEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20722, 15 November 1930, Page 8 (Supplement)

RAPID REVIEWS.

LOVE AND CRIME. " J acii randii NiolH," by Sheila Mar.Donald (Cassell.) " Itain Hoforo Wind," by Frank Stafford (Wright and Jhown.) " Cops and Robbers," by John Itlissel (Thornton Uutterworth.) " Plain Murder." by C. S. Forester (Tho Uodley llead.) In all Sheila MaeDonald's books tho real heroino is that wayward lady Rhodesin, in all her moods and tenses. Tho story of the sub-heroine .Jacarartda Nield herself, daughter of a rough plebeian and a faded English maiden lady carried off her feet by her suitor's wild wooing, is not the most attractive tho author has given us. Violcnco and murder are outside tho range of her gay humour, and tho plot is rather too reminiscent of Gertrudo Page's eternally triangular situations. The most vivid character-sketch in the book is that of Mrs. Newton, the calmly capable housewife and help-meet contending successfully with the manifold difficulties of a Uhodesian menage.

When rain cornea before wind, halyards, sheets and braces mind. When wino conies before rain, soon you iiiuy mnko sail unum.

This sailor's proverb gives Mr. Frank Stafford a title for his bright and breezy talo of adventure in tropical waters. If the author is nioro at home in nautical matters than with the manners and customs of tho British aristocracy that will not trouble readers, who ask for nothing more than a rattling yarn of a strong man's wooing, with villainous foreigners outwitted by stalwart Britons, and the music of wedding-bells in the last chapter.

John Russell is among the modern masters of the art of the short story, as every reader of " Where the Pavement Ends," will testify, in " Cops and Robbers," he exercises the same genius upon the perennially fascinating subject of crime and the result is a book entirely different from the ordinary detective or mystery story. His characters aro men first and " cops," or robbers afterwards. Incidentally " The Patrolman," supplies a necessary corrective to the idea that all American policemen aro " crooks " and " grafters." Hut while the stories arc of rare psychological interest this does not detract from their quality as geniune " thrillers." Let the reader try " The Burglar," or " 'I ho Man Who Was Dead," and see for himself.

Mr. C. S. Forester has an agile and versatile genius, lie has touched many stops of the literary organ, and like another writer lie has touched nothing without adorning it. To have written " Payment Deferred," or " Love Lies Dreaming," or " Brown on Resolution," is a notable achievement. To have written them all is little short of amazing. "Plain Murder," however, is not a fourth tour do force, but rather a return to the grim, and cumulative horror of " Payment Deferred." Three city clerks, two men and a mere boy have been found out in a petty fraud by Harrisin, the managing clerk, in the absence of the head of the firm. Ilarrisin threatens to report the matter to him on his return, and Morrife, the leading spirit of the trio, conceives the idea of murdering Harrisin before he can carry out the threat. Cleverly implicating the other two, Morris brings off the murder with such success that he begins to develop the true criminal megalomania. Anyone who stands in his way is deserving of instant death. It is in accordance with the irony of life that Morris' criminal career is checked by the man whom he despises for a fool, but who has the wit and the resolution to bring about a satisfactory if dccidely unconventional solution 'of an impossible situation.