RECENT FICTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23203, 29 May 1937, Page 4

RECENT FICTION

"Dead ■ Man Leading." By V. S. Pritchett. (Chattcand Winduis.) " The Mask of Providence." By Wallace B. Nichols. (Ward, Lock.) " Bread . Into Roses.'' By Kathleen Norris. ■ (Murray.) "Cut Flowmis." By Guy Fletcher (Cassell.) w " The Admiralty Regrets." By Reginald Campbell. (Cassell.) " The Red Spinner." By Edmund Snell. (Hale.) , "Death at the Club." By Miles Burton. (Crime Club.) " The Tonto Kid." By Henry Herbert Knibbs. (Hutchinson; 4s 6d.) (Each 7s 6d, unless otherwise; stated.) Fact and Imagination Mr Pritchett's "Marching Spain" gave us the quality of his cultured, sensitive mind and considered prose. In a work of fiction, which allows the author a further psychological scope than his classic travel book, he now reminds us that his is one of the most discriminating pens in the service of contemporary literature. The appeal of "Dead Man Leading" will, it is to be feared, be less general than so individual a contribution to the fiction of exploration deserves. Mr Pritchett's Brazilian expedition is rather concerned with the characters of his protagonists, the eddies arid whirlpools of mind in an environment a thousand miles from the normal, than with adventure. Yet the most interesting part of an essay into terra incognita may well relate not to the escapes from death, the hair-raising episodes featuring a rifle and an alligator, but to the mapping of the devious unknown country of men's'emotions, subiected to an extraordinary test. So it is With the psychological cUanges in Johnson, the strong, young explorer whose near-pathological state is gradually revealed to us; with the strange hallucination that broodings on the distant Lucy have bred'in him; and with the interaction, subtle yet profound, that Johnson's developing psychosis procures among all the. members of the expedition; that our memory plays, after this book is laid down. Physically, its theme seems unimportant; yet it has sufficient content of action. The whole business of a journey into the hinterland of Brazil is described; there is a violent death; a vishv from a jaguar; a flood; an attempt at murder, or as near to one as scarcely matters. Indeed, "Dead Man Leading " is well balanced between fact and imagination, and if it is Mr Pritchett's unusual powers in imaginative writing that will commend his work to the discriminating, the wider public which still likes to dwell on the fate of Fawcett should find satisfaction in the more factual episodes which it relates.

Roundhead and Cavalier A tale of one who was both Cavalier and Roundhead in the troubled days of the civil war is told in "The Mask of Provider»ce>l' by Wallace B. Nichols. Mr Nichols is a poet, whose'hobby is the writing of novels, and in this book he again shows, his capacity, for narrating a {tale in, a historical setting. Coincidence plays an important part in this tale of a foundling who is adopted by a wandering tinker, a former associate of Ben Jonson, Shakespeare and the gay company of the. Mermaid Tavern, and the black sheep of a noble family. After some pleasant rural passages the story strikes a sterner tone with, the outbreak of the rebellion against Charles I and, responding to the call of adventure, the young man takes arms for the King. An unfortunate love. affair, and the callous murder of his old protector, the tinker, turn the youth against the Rdyalists and he joins the Parliamentariaris, rising: to favour among them and marrying the daughter of an Ironside officer. But the tie of the old love, ?nd the discovery of his identity, unsettle the young man, who goes forth to war once more, taking the first step towards his final tragedy. By Kathleen Norris . •Susannah Farjeon, who may be called a typical Norris heroine, is the central figure in the book " Bread Into Roses," which could be. described as' a characteristic Norris romance. Mrs

Norris does not nowadays concentrate on the simple theme which the Americans indicate in the phrase " boy meets girl." Most of her likeable young women must pass through characterforming vicissitudes before they ultimately are set in the placid path of domestic felicity, and Susannah is no exception. Jilted on shipboard by a young man who decides In favour of a widow, she is thrown into the arms of a young widower. Their seemingly idyllic life is soon interrupted, and Susannah is for a time thrown on her own emotional resources. Happily for the readers of this book, fi Interrupted" proves to be the right word to describe the deviation from perfect harmony in Susannah's story. Love and Flower^

The title oi'Cruy Fletcher's latest novel is derived from the nsime of a flower shop wherein Jennifer Latham obtains employment. Jennifer finds that her path to success as a salesgirl is by no means strewn with the flowers she sells/ The other girls employed by " Cut Flowers" dislike her intensely, and make her lot far from pleasant. She falls in love with a likeable young man who,is eventually proved a philanderer. In the background is Dick Cunningham, proprietor of "Cut Flowers." who loves Jennifer, but whose love is put to severe tests, mainly through the bitter enmity of the head saleswoman. The book does not reveal Guy Fletcher at his best. It is heavily sentimental, ,and by the time page 70 is reached the reader can forecast what is going to happen—and without the slightest possibility of making a mistake. Gallipoli Fantasy

i-'Reginald Campbell has left his usual atrhosphereof the jungle and presented qa-;with art easily-read story of the sea entitled "The -Admiralty Regrets." The scene is laid on board a battleship engaged in the Dardanelles campaign, anß-the author .works up quite a tense • atmosphere in the descriptions of the bombardment an'd. later, the evacuation of:'the Gallipoli ;Peninsula. The capfain of the' ship*-, manages to take his ■Vessel;' through;*' the Dardanelles, and • completely changes the course of the War by making possible the capture of Constantinople. Unfortunately, he wakes up and finds that it was only a dream—which is about one of the oldest tricks of journalism known. < Olfert, a midshipman, is, perhaps, the central figure, but some of the lesser characters are more skilfully portrayed—the little padre, so afraid of a torpedo or mine, but unwilling to show his fear; the loyal gunnery-lieutenant, or Powell, the sub-lieutenant' in charge of the midshipmen.

Secret Service Who is the " Red Spinner? " That is the problem confronting Major Alan Vereker and his assistant, Reggie Faulkner, members of the Intelligence Department. A quantity of a very deadly poison gas, known as lannite, disappears, and it is suspected that the " Red Spinner " has stolen it, and that a certain country is behind the theft. The search made by the two intelligence men covers considerable ground, dramatic moments bejng played out on board ship in the Suez canal, in an hotel at Port Said, in a desert in Egypt, and on board ship again in midAtlantic. There are a good many characters, most of whom act suspiciously, and several conflicting trails. Despite the elimination of several suspects, all of whom meet violent deaths, the reader will find himself as uncertain as Vereker and Faulkner as to the identity of the "Red Spinner," socalled because of his habit of leaving, a Red Spinner trout fly on the bodies of his many victims, or of sending one as a warning to intended victims. "Death at the Club;" , The Witchcraft Club is a* group of 13 members who meet at regular intervals to hear and discuss papers on topics dealing with queer happeningswitchcraft, hauntings, and such-like ghostly doings. They have rooms in a building to which each member has a key. In the writing room the secretary, Brockman, is found dead, his. throat gashed from ear to ear. Who. did this ghastly murder? Such is the question'posed in "Death at the Club," by Miles Burton. The man who ought to have been the murderer could not possibly have done the deed, and as the police think over each possible suspect they are forced to, admit that no man can be in two places at once. The solution of the problem is obtained by Desmond Merrion. His method is the only doubtful part of the whole story, and it leaves the reader wondering why the murderer fell for such a trick "The Tonto Kid"

"The Tonto Kid," is a story with plenty of life and more than the usual number of revolver shots. The " Kid " is really the victim of circumstances, through which he becomes a " wanted " man while he is still a boy. Two thousand dollars is the price put on his head. Later he has to play a lone hand, and bitterly he resents the unfair treatment which he has to endure. Turn which way he will, he finds himself in the wrong though he desires above all things to go right. But it all comes out clear in the end, though the reader is left to marvel at the imagination displayed by the author of this wild western thriller. V. V. L.