NEW NOVELS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20982, 19 September 1931, Page 9 (Supplement)

NEW NOVELS.

BOOKS FOR VARIOUS TASTES. Sul£S 3 (Coll£ a > CUPS '" by Mrs " Alt ' red (Bodied 8 >lr ' c ' c '" Seville Brand. (HSnTnJ^ by Andrew Soutar. VachelhWa rd, Grid '*' b? *' A " A genial sophistication, a deliberately under-emphasised sense of humour, an intimate knowledge of foreign countries, especially of Germany, and a tolerance for the other fellow's" point of view—these qualities distinguish all the pleasant novels that Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick has written. StOims and lea-cups " gives some more chapters in the lives of the owners of None-Go-By " and their oddly-assorted foreign relations, headed by the cosmopolitan Suzanne Colmar. Despite the storms ot the title, it is the levei calm of the author's attitude to life which may strike some readers as monotonous, while others will welcome it as characteristically Sidgwickian. »*♦*** However, if action and excitement are required, " The Winning Trick " supplies both in full measure, pressed down and running over. The murder of Styles Cardew, while engaged in some mysterious diplomatic mission brings on the scene one Henry Barradyne, claimed by Mr. Brand's publishers to be " the equal of Bulldog Drummond in his evasiveness, ingenuity and getting-there-in-the-end-ness." From the moment that Barradyne, accompanied by his Watsonian friend, Robin Corheld, takes off by aeroplane for the much-advertised flight to Luxor, there is not a dull page, to employ the stereotyped phrase. Indeed, the bewildered reader almost wishes there were. For dangers and escapes, more dangers and more escapes follow ono another in such rapid succession that there is no timo to gain a coherent idea of what it is all about. Quite possibly, however, that is tho author's intention. * * ♦ * * * Sir Thomas Shadrow, baronet of ancient lineage, was at the end of his tether, llis younger son Reginald, sent on a forlorn hope to make his fortune in the United States, has returned, "not exactly -'broke.' but bent like a hairpin," bringing with him the lively Sadie and a motor-cara-van. " Strange Bedfellows " tells how the pompous baronet, his gentle wife, his arrogant sister, and his remaining son and daughter, with one faithful retainer, set of! in tho caravan and redeem the family fortunes. Before condemning; the tale "as utterly futile and preposterous one should perhaps note the story related by Mr. Soutar of an American magazine editor who commissioned an English author to write a story in American slang. " But I don't know tho slang," the author protested. I should use the wrong terms. ' •" Sure, said the psychologist, " and my readers will laugh like hell at your mistakes. It's the laugh I want to give them." *»*•»*♦ "At the Sign of the Grid is a collection of short stories dealing with the adventures of various members of the Gridiron, an exclusive London club, which 2' pills " anyone who is either " unclubable " or not distinguished by some personal achievement. Stories of this sort have been done supremely well by Barry Pain, and, more fantastically, by G. K. Chesterton. But Mr. H. A. \ achell, with his tendency to long-wmdedness, does not shine as a short story-teller, and " At the Sign of the Grid " never succeeds in being more than mildly entertaining except, possibly, in the story " Civilitv Favs," where the picture ot the " sturdv Colonial" in " brown boots with white spats, a red tie and a billy - cock hat" who addresses Sir Ed waul Heath as Sir Heath, rises to the pitch of the screamingly—though unconsciously —funny. .