REX BEACH'S LATEST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21100, 6 February 1932, Page 9 (Supplement)

REX BEACH'S LATEST.

AMERICA'S SMART SET. " Money Mad " is the latest novel by tJso popular writer Hex Beach. While many prefer his earlier stories of the Yukon, Mr. Beach deserves praise for the easy style of his writing and the finished manner in which ho deals with all kinds of subjects in this new book. Certainly there is nothing dull in " Money -Mad," which has an up-to-the-minnto story to tell. It concerns America's modern smart set; their work, their pleasures, their good times and bad. The reader is taken " big-game " angling off the Florida coast., and when a bored young millionaire comes out of the sky in his scapiane to crash alongside the launch, where a mighty sail-fish has just been fought and killed by the heroine, the storv begins to move along at an exciting pace. '1 lie characters are concerned in the Florida land boom. Banks close their doors and a fine old family is disgraced by the sharp practices of the colleagues of Henry Morgan, who is made the scapegoat of one bank failure and sent to prison. His daughter sets out to retrieve the family fortunes and has amazing adventures on Wall Street and in the homes of the ultra-wealthy. There are remarkable descriptions of parties "thrown" by people to whom money is no object. A new " thrill " is all that, matters, and scenes of ancient splendour are reenacted at tremendous cost. The climax comes with the Wall Street crash at the end of the year 1929. Whether this particular incident, is faithfully depicted or not, it is told in the writer's best descriptive style and grips the attention. Of course there is salvage from most wrecks and wo are taken alonjj to a very pleasant " old-fashioned " happy ending. " Money Mad," by Rex Beach. (Hutchinson.)