FRUITS OF SUPERSTITION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21698, 13 January 1934, Page 9 (Supplement)

FRUITS OF SUPERSTITION

SCOTTISH HIGHLAND MYSTERY ■ i . •' ; Colin Campbell, whose first novel " Out of the Wild Hills," will be pleasantly recalled, has now written a gripping mystery story of the West Highlands of Scotland. The title of the book, " Murder Up the Glen," lends itself to an anticipation of a modern crime and detection theme, but such is far from the case. Indeed, the author excels in descriptive powers, and by means of his facile pen captures the reader's imagination and transports his or her thoughts right to the scene of the stirring events about which he writes.

An elaborate map of the district concerned is provided, but were this not so it is easy to visualise the lochs and glens* and mountain ridges, also the treacherous bogs so oftpn shrouded in impenetrable mist and fog. The presence of a ghostly walker in these eerie regions is in keeping with the superstitions of Scottish Highland folk and adds a further complication to the mystery of unsolved murders, disappearances and strange attacks on lonely walkers at night. Likely solutions and vague theories are propounded in turn by several characters concerned in the story, but although considerable light is ultimately thrown on many of the strange occurrences, the mystery in its entirety remains unsolved. It is left to the reader to draw his or her own conclusions from the amazing disclosures which bring the story to a fitting climax, but the inward feeling remains that the whole solution has not been found, nor ever -will be found, but rather that such mysterious happenings are part and parcel of this lonely Highland district and its super-stitiously-minded inhabitants and that such will always be so.

" Murder Up the Glen," by Colin Camp bell. (Rich and Cowan.)