MOSTLY THRILLERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21242, 24 January 1931, Page 4

MOSTLY THRILLERS.

NOVELS FOR AN IDLE HOUR. " Where Will You Fall ? " By Leo Perutz. Translated from the German by Hedwlg Singer. London: Elkin Matthews and Marrot. (6s net.) “ The Heir.” By Roger Burllngbamc. London; Cassell. (6s net.) “Birds of the Night." By Austin Moore. London: Hodder and Stoughton. (Gs net.) “ Partners." By Hugh Pendexter. London: W. Collins Sons. (6s net.) “ The Dark Stranger." By Mrs Victor Rickard. London: Hodder and Stoughton. (6s net.) ■ , . “ Hell to Pay.” By Hugh Clcvely. London: Hutchinson. (6s net.) “ The Folded Paper Mystery." By Hulbert Footuer. London: W. Collins Sons. (6s net.) “la Masquerade.” By Margaret Behrens. London: Herbert Jenkins. (6s net.) It is probable that, before the translation of German war books into our own tongue, the average reader gave very little thought to the fact that other nations have their novelists, and that there are vast reading publics to be catered for besides the millions whose language is English. There can be little doubt that the popularity of these war books stimulated interest in foreign literature, particularly that of Germany, and the demand for the best of what other countries are reading is one which publishers have not been slow to satisfy. It, is a more or less safe assumption that if a book is deserving of translation it is W’orthy of the reader’s interest, and that certainly applies in the case of “ Where Will You Fall?” by Leo Perutz. Translation has not robbed, this book of its essentially German character, and it is written in that seriousness of spirit that one has come to associate wjth German authorship. A story which has as its theme an ill-treated man’s thirst for revenge could not, of course, be anything else but serious, and Mr Perutz has succeeded in creating a grim atmosphere in keeping with the almost fanatical desire of his central character. Briefly, the story concerns a pact made by five exprisoners of war to kill the officer-in-charge of the Russian prison from which they have been released. In the end it is left to one man to carry • out the purpose on which they have agreed, and the book deals with his relentless pursuit of his intended victim.- ' His story is briefly told in his own words and its range well illustrated when he says: “ To find this man I have braved typhus, lice, hunger, war, prison. I have been through. Russia, across Europe,-through God alone knows what pestilential hells. I have slept on rotting straw, was nearly arrested at Moscow, saw comrades shot at my side. ... I have mixed with,the scum of humanity. . . The ending is -unexpected but logical—the story_ as a whole well constructed and providing an interesting study of a mind obsessed I by one idea. The author’s description of life in Russia in the days of the revolution fill the most interesting portions of the book.

Mr Perutz has embellished an old idea in an interesting setting, and the same raay be said of Mr BurTinghame’s “The Heir,” the old, old story of the square peg in the round hole, which gains authenticity and interest from his able handling of the materials. The hero, John Van Dyne, is a young and clever American, the son of a wealthy industrial For “ Johnnie ” his father has the highest hopes, expecting him, of course, to carry on the old-established and prosperous business; but “Johnnie” has a natural love of architecture and a gift for designing. Genuinely loving his father, and unable to provoke an open rebellion, he plunges against his will and better judgment into uncongenial work. The result of the mesalliance is in some measure tragic, and works out to a conclusive finale, but the strength of the book lies in Mr Burlinghame’s very deft character-drawing', ana the scrupulousness with which he presents the incidents and persons who give life to his novel. The people in the story, indeed, are all interesting, and enable the reader to add to his knowledge of, and sympathy with, those Americans who, in love with culture, or in love with tne love of it, must find their lives made even more' difficult than would an Englishman who desired to devote himself to exotic pursuits. There is a love story in “ The Heir,” but this has been given a subsidiary interest to the more elemental basis of the novel.

Austin Moore has given us a very reaaable mystery in “ Birds of the Night. It turns on the fact that Molly Langton is really the heiress of Sir Thomas Abbot, her grandfather, and yet has no knowledge of her relationships this wealthy baronet. Others do know this fact and determine to use their knowledge for their own -purposes. Fortunately for Molly, there are two opposed groups, the one wishing to keep her alive, the other seeking her death, and these ■ hinder each other. A third complicating factor' is the existence of a gang which is printing banknotes of various countries, smuggling them to the Continent, and there distributing tnem. Still a fourth complication involves tue place of Frederick, Bentley, who is believed to have committed. suicide_ in the work of perfecting a coal sublimation process. The result is quite a baffling plot which the reader' finds difficulty in following because he is not aware of the inter-lacing of the'various .interests. Molly Langton is employed as, secretary to John Warner, and in a Paris'hotel makes the serious discovery that she is really smuggling large quantities of forged banknotes from London to the Continent. Lnfortunately she fears the police and manages to evade them. She returns to London, and Professor Henry Caspian oilers her a post as his secretary, but makes certain stipulations which sound strange, but are not quite impossible of fulfilment. In her anxiety She accepts, and thus finds herself the centre of-a series of happenings bewilderingly strange. Is Frederick Bentley really dead? Who is Dr Ivor Drayton, and what is be engaged in. Who is forging the banknotes, and how lire they being passed? How does Maurice Sternhold come into the whole queer, business? Then there is Julia Farr and her machinations. It is all bewildering—almost too much so —but the solution is really very simple, and the author manages to keep it till very near the end of the book. 1

Few writers of American outdoor fiction have as wide' a knowledge of the “Wild West’s” early history and famous personages as Mr Pendexter. His novels all have an historical background, and for this reason are always particularly convincing. As a writer of fiction Mr Pendexter does not seem to approve of much love interest in his stories, but in “ Partners ” he introduces, in Annie Ellis, a typical pioneering spirit. Brought up in tFe East in comfortable surroundings, she arrives unexpectedly at a mining camp in search of her brother. On learning that he is under suspicion of having killed a man, she bravely, decides to stand by him. The pair are assisted -to fly to a secluded farm by Nate Goss, a gambler, and' Annie learns how much fuller life can be on a ranch than in an eastern drawing room. For the greater part, however, the story follows the activities of Nate Goss from, camp to camp, and in bis descriptions of the general conditions prevailing and the manners and customs of the miuers and others Mr Pendexter is not to be excelled. His clever introduction of events of historical interest only serves to enhance the reality of the story. This is a book that lovers of the Western class of fiction will lay aside with regret that it is not longer.

“The Dark Stranger,” by Mrs Victor Rickard, h the story of Dolores Castell, a descendant of an old family in which there was a terrible taint, a madness which led one member after another to commit murder by poisoning. Leopold Fordax and his friend Dudley Task had left England five years ago for Serrati, where excavation work was in progress. Quite unexpectedly Fordax returns and calls upon his friend Charles Moreton, securing admittance by a curious knock. Moreton does not know him,, and when Fordax reveals his identity can hardly believe that one who had been counted dead is returned in the flesh._ Fordax tells a terrible story of his friend Pask, who had married Dolores Castell and within a very brief period _ had died a shameful death and been buried in a rubbish heap. Then the awful fact comes to light,—Dolores Castell is married to Sir Walter Ozanne and is pursuing the same plan with him, drugging him with Vylax, a powder which drives men to the most horrible practices. The story then takes the form of a duel between Fordax and Dolores for the soul and the life of Ozanne. Charles Moreton, Ozanne’e *ad lemplo, hie

cousin, make an admirable couple whose love story does not run smooth. The wicked wife almost accomplishes her end, and comes within a hair’s breadth of murdering Eve too. Her strange infatuation for Lord Essingdon and an impatience to be away with him prove her undoing. The story is a little hurried at the close, and the reader feels that more might have been made of certain dramatic situations which attend the drowning of Dolores and the unmasking of Essingdon and Farrescourt, two unprincipled scoundrels. “ The Dark Stranger ” ’s hardly a mystery, seeing that one knows what is going on all the time, but it is none the less interesting, and can be recommended for holiday reading.

Hugh Clevely, the author of “Hell to Pay,” appears to have the ability to write a thoroughly good “thriller,” but somehow, while giving us a story to fill in an hour or two of leisure, he just falls short of success. For one thing, there is too great a tendency , on his part to describe the methods adopted by the man of brute strength 1 and slightly deficient mentality, and for another he tends to allow his characters to degenerate into . coarseness of expression “ Hell to Pay ” illustrates both of these characteristics. Corinna Lesley, the daughter of a provincial doctor, comes to London to study art and, incidentally, by designing magazine covers and such like, to earn her own way. Tired of her lodgings she takes a flat and sub-lets one part to Valerie Morris, and a second portion to Roland Piquar, retaining the remaining rooms for herself. The very night her two tenants move in, Piquar is murdered by means of an antique dagger which belongs to Corinna. Valerie Morris had gone out after locking her rooms. Thus Corinna and Piquar were alone, and he was known as a “ bit of a Lothario,” while Corinna had the reputation of being careful of her reputation in a tom-boyish fashion. She calls up Philip Cavanagh, a medico-jurist, and he sets to work to clear her of all suspicion. Early in -his investigations Philip has a “ scene ”, with one Vincent, a grossly fat man, and at the same time we hear that Corinna had deeply ofiended this person by a laughing reference to his stoutness, a point, on which he is absurdly sensitive. Then comes a third “ pointer ”■—that Vincent and Valerie Morris are exceedingly friendly. From these three hints, given fairly early in the book, the reader knows who murdered Piquar, and how it was done, and has a shrewd suspicion why. Still Mr Clevely has given us a good story with plenty .of dramatic situations. He has that power almost to excess. What be should do is to think over the subtleties of Ms plot a little more carefully. We look for a first-rate “thriller” from him in the future. sj« # Jk In “The Folded Paper Mystery" Mr Footner gives us a story founded on the fortunes of the royal house of Kuban, a small State on the shores of the Black Sea. Succession to the throne turns on the possession of the ancient crown, though this does not come out till we reach the last chapter of the book. Nicholas Peters, a watchmaker in a crowded part of New York, is found murdered by bis friend Finlay Corveth, In a previous attempt on his life a brass knob belonging to his bed was used to stun Peters, and his assailant had taken this- away in his pocket. Realising that the knob contains some secret, Corvetb goes after it, and finally finds and secures it. Going to break the news to Mariula, the ward of Nicholas Peters, Corveth finds that he must take her away from the school she is attending. Thereafter the story develops into a case of spy and counter-spy. In the brass knob is found a great emerald, which is really two halves of one stone fitted together. Hidden in this is a paper which has only a seeming pencil dot on its surface, yet it contains a message which Corveth and his friend Mappin finally decipher. How a false move on the part of a villain named Nipperg led them to the house where the treasure was hidden, and how Mappin’s curious knowledge enabled him to understand the term “Dazbog,” which in turn led Corveth to the actual hiding place, is related by the author at length. Readers will find the story a good one and readable, even if it is a little drawn out by unnecessary spy-work.

A pseudo professor of the occult, whose sheer impudence is equalled only by his utter disregard for the truth, and a Scots lassie who is his direct antithesis and whom, after a 1 most extraordinary and somewhat impossible sequence of events, he marries, are the hero and the heroine 'of Margaret Behrens’s latest novel, “In Masquerade.” Despite the absurdity of situations into which these two fall, and from which they manage to extricate themselves, “In Masquerade” is quite readable, and is written with an altogether refreshing touch of whimsical humour. The author relates with gusto the manner in which the professor wins his way from comparative obscurity to a place among the gods, with the assistance of the motherly and conscientious Scots girl, and his description of how an adopted baby furthers 'their plans, and how the professor, with brazen effrontery, uses every acquaintance as a stepping stone to greater wealth, forms the theme of a story which, although tho matter is light, will provide a good hour’s entertainment. V. V. L.