THE LATEST NOVELS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20958, 22 February 1930, Page 4

THE LATEST NOVELS

HUMOROUS AND OTHERWISE " VU«i Bodies." By Evelyn Waugh, Lonuon: Chapman and Hall, Ltd. (6a net.) , T On Solway Bridge." By, Q. E. Mttton (Lady Scott), London; John Murray, (6s net) ' " The Black Camel." By Earl Derr BiKgers. London:- Cassell and Co., Ltd, d6s net.) American Beauty." By Arthur . Meeker. London: Thornton, Butterworth, Ltd. (Gsnet.) "The Murder in Romney Marsh." ' •By Edgar Jepsou. . London: Herbert Jenkins, Ltd. (Gs net.)- ■“ Mr Dass.” By Bertram Atkey. London :■ Hodder and Stoughton, Ltd. (6s'net)

Something of the irrepressible William Gerhardi and a ■ dash .-of, Aldous' Huxley in his earlier, leas grimly.' analytical days, is to be found in “ vile Bodies,” ■ the second novel" to be written by Mr Evelyn Waugh, _ Mr Waugh is a humorous writer -of.no mean ability, and like most of the better humorous writers, he has discovered that in nonsense is to be found the most effective means of elevating the thoughts of the reader above, the serious affairs of' life and literature into that realm where anything might happen, and generally does. . The author quotes Alice’s explanation to the Queen, that in the country she is familiar with one would generally get somewhere else if one ran very fart for a long time, and the Queen's reply • that it must be a slow sort of country. “ Now, here,” she. said, it takes all the running you can do, to keep. ;m the same pfece." If you want : to' get somewhere hlse, you must fiin at least-twice-as fast as that.” This appearsto be- ah| apologia 7 sufficiently; lucid to excuse ‘ Vile Bodies ” for, its reckless inconsequence and studied naughtiness. ‘ It is a story concerned with the doings of> the, Bright Young People of London, considerably brighter than they can really be, and every incident related has its irrelevant flippancies directed at the household, gods of an older and, it must be claimed, a more stable, generation. Mr Waugh everything and everyday- Love is removed from the almanac completely, to be replaced by emotions; which are as artificial, as hie characters, and the excitement of the motor race which leads to Agatha Runcibla’s tragic end is reduced to absurdity. Politics share m the general decline of the virtues, and in." a London where the Government is changing every. few days the sorry figure the Prime Minister stands out, ah unfortunate who is finable to keep track of - the ; comings and goings of his own followers and occasionally is forced to make - a hesitating protest: “ ‘ You treat me like a child,’ he said. It was all like one of those Cabinet meetings, when they all talked about something he didn’t understand and- paid no. attention fo him.” ibo mam people in the story are Adam, -JW unfortunately to work for Ws living, and Nina Blount, to whom he is tmgaged occasionally, and their adventures with a drunk major. Colonel Blount, ana a variety of other ridiculous people, « viL 6 !* dlvert j D K reading. While -votw _® odl . efl as has been stated, -a amusing book, it is a l so a ? ne ; *« d will not meet with the approval of all who enjoy Mr P. G Wodehouse’s nonsense. The Yorkshire first novel conn'?t “ uc h . futl > but much bad nnwfo tta who wrote that condemnation will feel the same wav about “Vile Bodies" - ay

The novel reader may find Mr Waugh Lw& < C^ t f erta i Mr - for a ? occasional half-hour. but for- the most part he wants something more solid and less irrespom Slb j. e -, In On Solway Bridge,” the very antithesis of “ Vile Bodies?’ the n S jj? l7 rdief is obtainable. This is a very b ?? k J r r !, tte S with the /excess of care to which Lady Scott inclines and Bteadil |; and logically to an -ejected, climax. .Bede Delaval, the sen-ng-er of a famil 7 of country Soliv % swirhng watera below boJTiay Bridge the-faces of the people he £ re “sponsible for his mediocrity fmi;J:? ba i PP i nesa ’u and l J elfeves tllat those - a ?-^ ava £ ee , n K lven into his keeping, their fates into his hands. The events which fojlow hia vision are sufficiently striking, to justify him in" his • feat that, almost unconsciously, he has made a compact with-; the powers of -darkness, and -phi®-fear colours ins dealings with his brother Cuthbert, with Ina. W sister™ law, and. with the Polish girl who convinces him that he should marry her Bede a introduction to the supernatural! if such it ib, is followed by his acquaintance with an unconventional country cleric who introduces him to old Matilda. This *? A woman who possessed the “second sight and ms in_ Bede ,one competent Li on - her J lft , after her death In his little niece Perdita he discovers perhaps the .only person who can understand him, and hia . friendship with the- child sustains him .during the time when some invisible power w apparently working Tor hia material advantage but is destroying ■T?dS ,, w?L 1 "5 e: f apd ia his fel, °w men. Lady Scott has taken great trouble in the delineation,of the character of Bede Dei?? mhcrent quality is that of the , idealist and dreamer, and who becomes obsessed mth the idea that he has sacrificed his right to real happiness and content. On Solway Bridge" might L?f y nf aSl^i. lia , ve dcome a dreary but the author s method is so painstakinu and sincere that the reader’s interest is held almost in spite of himself during the unravelling of the story 6

If Bede Delaval thinks that murder r? i ndlr i£*- agency has been committed. Inspector Chan, of the Honolulu police Hnfl-* Ver f % any doubt about the grim reality of the murder which is responsible for the. action m “The Black Camel.' Ihm excellent mystery story by the author 0f.., Seven Keys to Baldpate" is ekilci. r f !T om luoment when bneU-h h ane, the famous motipn picture actress, is found dead in the pavilion of ttie. house she has rented at Waikiki ceach. until the moment some 24 hours later when Chan is able to arrest her murderer.. Shelah’s death occurs during an _evening upon which several Hollywood and Honolulu friends are to dine with her, and so adroitly is the story handled that it" becomes plain that any one of her guests might have had some reason i° r her out of the way. InspecChan immediately connects her death with .that of Denis Mayo, another film star, in Los Angels thre years before, and the difficulty of-his task is increased hy the necessity of throwing light upon this older unsolved crime, before he can hope to pierce the mystery surrounding the murder of _ Shelah. The ponderous Chinese detective, whose brain . moves much more quickly than his ungainly body, has a fine reputation as an investigator, and his honour is at stakf in the matter of finding by whose agency the black camel of death came to rest at Shelah Pane’s gateway.- The lover of the : actress, a wealthy landowner, the man who was previously her husband,, and is playing with a stock company in Honolulu, her friends from California, including the mysterious seer, larneverro the Great, and even her secretary, Julie, are in turn questioned and suspected by the detective: before he is able tc establish a definite clue linking one of them with the tragedy and arranges the mock dinner party at which the secret is revealed. The aitual murderer,-it, is-only fair to say. .scarcely appears as a principal in the story at. all, but Mr Biggera can be excused this dereliction of the novelist's •duty to his readers' in view of the exciting, nature of the book.

Mr Arthur Meeker deals with a problem of a different nature —the problem that Angelica Vane presents to, her ambitious mother and the scheming duenna. Lady Millicent Carr, who is expected to find the girl a wealthy husband. “American Beauty ” reveals a rather unsavoury side of Continental life, in which the professional chaperon and the matchmaking mother, both valiantly and even viciously striving to retain their:precarious social position, rely on the beauty of a girl to procure them _ financial assistance. Angelica herself is the most unsatisfactory character in the book. She is capable of falling in love, but incapable of defying the harsh demands of her mother, and one .feels that she deserves just such happiness as she achieves,, which is little. Mr Meeker's portrait of Lady Millicent Carr, in her own words spoken after _ a champagne supper, “ a reduced lady in circumstances,” is able, amusing, and not very edifying. There can be no doubt that such women exist, too proud or lazy to work, too poor to exist without occupation of some kind, and driven oy virtue of their birth and social graces to the professional chaperoning of young American ladies in search of titled or moneyed husbands. Lady Millicent has a .wealthy young marquis set aside for Angelica, and takes the girl to stay with a

friend at Dinard in order that her scheme may be carried out. Angelica, however, who has already learnt much during her 25 years of hectic life, unaccountably falls in love with a penniless young man, and La'dy Millicent, who hides a sentimental heart beneath her hard exterior, advises the two' to marry. The: return of'Mrs Vane from, Baden Baden--upsets their plans, and the story ends, as modern comedies of manners generally do, very much where it began.

.. code ,s are foreign to the * i And sometimes, as has been stated before in these columns, the writers of detective fiction neglect the ethical codes pertaining to their art, as enunciated by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle so many years ago. With “ The Murder in Romney Marsh, however, the reader of mystery stories should be very agreeably thrilled and entertained. This is a straightforward story entirely free of those distracting aide issues and algebraic eC [ u -i! 10 ns ’.-t as they might be termed, with which authors sometimes seek to divert the reader s attention .when a-plot is falling to pieces. Robert Garfield, a rich city i business man, i 8 found dead near Applecross farm in Romney Marsh. He had v been killed with three 2.2 bullets. v®"P tIV t ,n ® peo ,^ r ~C arthew. ScotlandYard,, who, is detailed to solve the mystery, is neither a fool nor a wizard, and goes about 'his investigation in a workfas^lon -, the desolate marsh he soon. becomes aware of many f j cta — n ’?ht-flyjng aeroplanes, cer. ar S illuminated at intervals, and the beautiful step-daughter of a penurious clergyman, who wears an 80;Sw coat ; 'Step by rtep the “oves towards a solution, and at •An +k g 0 v th ! Storjr does interest flag! .All .the characters are well drawn, and Sfflern+Lf re fj es hmg absence of that exP° rtunn ? by villain or hero Mr° f T?S spoils' an otherwise good Edgar Jepson is to be connovM^wh?ch P whil he t f^ reduction of another wmeh, while it does not possess, or merß m«E! SSeSS ’ any Particular literary afford fbf ver y agreeable reading and i. - menta l Bimulus which the

* * ♦ novd' r in D equally exciting S?X“’ ln which those queer partners. Mr S^EhJ?" B .* and P* Sataman Ch’ai 3" “£ ,duc ? d as sleuths who track I™ the notorious blackmailer and murJamT a - S Dra i? c>ur - and make Engia“d a ha PPi e r place for those forenough -to possess money or jewels which a super-criminal might covet.r^L.Pf ES J® even more ponderous than Cha -S*’ i aad hke tte inspector, whoffv a J^opean— or at least no£ He , does the thinking, and s uA> e c £ ncl ™? D 8 upon which energetic little Mr Salaman relies in his dangerous work of finding who is re--5W W ? for fte. traffic 1 in a strangt W causing moral and Icracv dI T^ lt among *^ e English ariaIJtlt 7 '- T l® '‘H'eajorted pair live toa house m Green square, perhaps the only thing they have in comS a - lo ZP of b i rd , B ' Mr Salaman is faery, quixotic, and brave while hia , 18 *- coward and fears all forms of violence, being more than content to do the thinking for his friend and leave him to do the fighting., Mr oalaman and a private detective named Jliss are led mto more than one tieht comer during the course of their search tor Dragour. and earn the thanks of a number of people whom they rescue from ms clutches. In the final round-up, when the identity of Dragour is at last revealed, and activities come to a sudi plays a hero’s part, aided by the inspiring drug given him by an Indian friend and the presence ot a nice assortment of .tear-shells and prussic acid bombs in his pockets, V» V» L.