RECENT FICTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23330, 23 October 1937, Page 4

RECENT FICTION

"The Marsh." By Ernest Raymond (Cassell). "Hamlet, Revenge!" By Michael [nnos (Gollancs). "The Girl Who Wanted Experience." By Lee Shlppey (Harrap). "A Regency Rascal." By W. P. Drury (Hutchinson). "Rhythm Romeo." By Barbara Stanton (Hurst and Black il t). "Futile Pursuit." By Phyllis M. Wilson (Mills and Boon). "Queer Mr Quell." By William J. Makln (Hodder and Stoughton). " What's At the End ? " By Leslie Beresford (Jenkins). "Last Trump." By Lee Thayer (Hurst and Blackett). "The Killers." By George C. Henderson (Ward. Lock). 4s Gd. (Each 7s 6d unlesn otherwise stated.) The Criminal's Point of View In his latest novel, "The Marsh," Ernest Raymond hc.s given a striking £ortrayal of life in the East End of ondon, where lay the fens that centuries ago were overlooked by the twin hills on which to-day appear the palaces of the "Masters." As he did in a previous novel, "We, the Accused, the author deals with crime from the criminal's point of view. He picks at random a boy fresh from school—a boy who has received as good an upbringing as any to be found In a London slum —and step by step traces his career, and describes the events that lead him to a life of crime. The reader's sympathies cannot but be with the central figure in this tale, for the humiliating experiences he encounters bring him logically to the conclusion that life is a personal struggle between himself, and others of his class, and the "Masters" on the hills. At a time when the penal

code in England is undergoing a considerable change, this book makes a welcome appearance. Mr Raymond describes with the pen of a realist the unnecessarily crude, even stupid; conditions obtaining in the typical English prison. Prison life, certainly, is meant to be no bed of roses, but if it is true that prisoners driven mad by solitary confinement are punished for their misbehaviour by a further and more stringent dose of this ruthless remedy, it is apparent that the system requires amending. Mr Raymond's characters, as ever, are well drawn. There is, first of all, Danny Counsel, the subject of the tale, and then his mother; a typical product of slum conditions. Two of the most vivid characters in the book, however, are a sadistic police sergeant and the pathetic figure of Miss Rachel, a well-born mission worker, who alone seems to have discovered the secret of winning the sympathies and loyalty of the poor. The book is smoothly written, and the descriptions of life in the slums and in prison are remarkable for their fearlessness and realism.

The Author: Ernest Raymond, novelist, was born in 1888, and educated at St. Paul's School and the Chichester Theological College, then at Durham, University, ■ where he took a Preliminary to Holy Orders. For three years thereafter he taught at Glengorse School, at Eastbourne, and in 1914 he was ordained. His war experience was obtained in Gallipoti, Egypt, France, Persia, and Russia, attached to various regiments. He was demobilised in 1919, and in 1922 his success- ■ ful novel "Tell England" appeared. In the following year he resigned Orders, and he has since devoted himself to writing, principally Action. His recreations are riding, hiking, travelling, winter sports, and watching cricket. He is married, with two children, and lives in Sussex.

"Hamlet, Revenge!" Mr Innes has erudition, Mr Innes has a mind of the cornpletest ingenuity, and Mr Innes has a sense of humour. Perhaps these possessions are not the only qualifications that equip a man to write tales of mystery and imagination, but they are the most greatly to be appreciated by those who consider seriously, with the eye of the connoisseur, the products of the authors of stories of elucidation. "Hamlet, Revenge!" like this writer's previous " Death at the President's Lodging," is a vintage product. Not only does Mr Innes mystify his readers in the positive sense traditional to his craft, with false clues, red herrings, cryptograms, and suspiciously innocent persons, but he offers another element to intrigue, in the question one inevitably asks, whether the book is intended for the I greater entertainment of Mr Innes himself, or for his reader's delectation. It is, however, purely an academic question. What matters is that he has composed a crime novel that a don need not be ashamed to be discovered reading in working hours (for might he not explain that he was engaged in controversy on the textual authorities of Shakespeare?), nor a Labour Cabinet Minister be mortified to have revealed in his despatch case (for he could plead that he was studying the autocratic system that prevails over democratic counsels at English houseparties where the great are assembled). It is a Very High Personage who first meets death at Scamnum Court, that stately home, and no less significant than the fact that he was playing Polonius at the time is the disappearance of Papers of Great Importance, which he had carried as a scroll, being, nervous of leaving them in so Insubstantial a guarding place as, say, the Bank of England. It is most fortunate, in all the circumstances, that the Prime Minister is able to entrust the investigation to an officer of the calibre of Mr John Appleby, of Scotland Yard, upon whom he calls iersonally when Mr Appleby returns from an evening at the Covent Garden ballet, for there can be few detectives, even from the police college, who have Mr Appleby's flair for scholarihip, and though he is forced, in the end, to use a gun effectively, his first few hours at Scamnum are spent in much more intellectual pursuits. The nature of these it may be left to inquiring readers to discover within the pages of " Hamlet, Revenge!" but one can confidently predict that they will find the exercise pleasant and stimulating, if they have ever dreamed fondly of mystery stories with more sophistication than Sayers and a little less Wimsey. The Girl Who Wanted Experience Mr Shippey evidently considers that he has found a good thing in Ourville, and is determined not to lose his grip of it. This is another book about the same group of people as filled the background in "Where Nothing Ever Happens," but with different central figures. But it is not nearly such a good book. There is the same brand of laconic philosophy, but in these pages it seems to be rather too laconic, and of a very inferior grade of philosophy. The supposedly wise old

Judge Trent, who acts as a sort of small-town providence to all concerned, airs his views on the human race from time to time. They would have been better kept well under that gentleman's hat, if they are his idea of a way of life. The plot is substantially contrived about a murder, committed most improbably by the athletic wife of the local millionaire, v/ho can leap three feet from an upstairs bedroom window and catch a sycamore tree with her arms. The mystery is never solved. The chief suspect is helped to escape with the connivance of the judge, by the millionaire, who thinks she was probably guilty, but was glad she had done it. The wife is never suspected except by Judge Trent, who, like a true American judge of fiction (and perhaps of fact) allows her to go on her way because he wouldn't like to upset his friend, her husband. The story, in fact, is a hotchpot of poor philosophy, of sentiment frequently slipping down into the deep and sticky abyss of sentimentality, and of doubtful morals which the author appears to consider the natural morals of humanity. A Rascally Hero

The hero of "A Regency Rascal." Jack Peregrine, is away from the conventional type of hero. He is an arrant rascal, and long before the story ends the reader discovers there is no limit to his knavery. Kidnapping, the destruction of ships, and schemes for murder are alike to him. There L no final atonement for these acts, though a cunningly laid and successful plan for the wrecking of * ship carrying gold all but proves his undoing. Hard pressed for money in the opening chapters, Peregrine tricks an innocent and wealthy girl into marrying. They remain married throughout the story, but the girl proves a match for him on more than one occasion. The story is racily told, and the devil-may-care spirit of Peregrine impresses itself on the reader so that, scoundrel though he is, one's sympathies are all on his side. The story is set in London and Barbadoes during the Regency period. Our copy is from Whitcombe and Tombs. ■) "Rhythm Romeo"

This light, romantic novel will appeal more to feminine readers, who can discern an aura of glamour about band leaders and crooners, than to the devotees of "hot" rhythm. The central situation is the neglect by a jazz band "maestro" of his young bride, while he consorts with the social sycophants who cluster about popular people—and his eventual realisation of what way happiness and content lie.

Suppliant Simon Approximately the reverse situation is presented in Phyllis May Wilson's "Futile Pursuit," in which a man of wealth, Simon, engages to draw Tessa to his sheltering arms while she remains faithful to a faithless and scoundrelly husband. The hardships which Tessa is forced to endure through her husband's dishonesty, then the collapse of her family's fortunes, do not serve, as might be expected, to turn her towards the suppliant Simon; but her decision at last will not disappoint her wellwishers, nor his. Classical Murders

"Queer Mr Quell" is a decidedly intriguing story. Various people, generally unsavoury characters, are made to realise in no uncertain fashion that their habits, their actions, their very intentions are much disliked by "Atticus." On each one of those upon whom he lays his hands he puts a quotation expressed in Greek of a classical flavour.. Peter Quell endeavours to set things right, and, to a degree, manages to do so. In the greatest adventure of all he finds that he may not have his own way. He and his faithful attendant. Jukes, have a lot of fun in spite of this disappointment, and the reading of this book will give much enjoyment to others, to whom the last failure will bring only a passing regret.

Strange Bequest After reading a few pages of " What's at the End?" one can find it easy to re-echo the title. Eight people, of diverse occupations and for the most part of widely different natures, arrive at an old chateau in the south of France in answer to a legal notice, which has been sent to each, to the effect that he. or she is the sole legatee, under the will of an eccentric, of the chateau and a substantial income. Confusion naturally arises when it is made apparent that the testator's intention had been for all the beneficiaries to live together in the chateau, but horror is superimposed upon chaos when, during the first night, one of the eight dies in mysterious circumstances. Horror in turn gives place to panic when a second death occurs the next day, and a state bordering upon hysteria is reached when two more deaths occur in rapid succession. So calamitous is the position by this time that one wonders how the author will be able to extricate his principals, but Mr Beresford is too ingenious a writer to fail when once such a situation has been created..

Mystery at Sea Peter Clancy, an American private detective, makes another appearance in Lee Thayer's latest mystery, " The Last Trump." It tells of a murder on one of the smaller Atlantic liners, and the endeavours of the detective and his assistant to discover the murderer before the ship reaches port. Included in the strange passenger list are several suspects, including a " human ape " and its trainer, an American newspaper woman, a drunkard, neurotic women, and Indian mystics.

Cattle Country Adventure Kathleen Brcnnan, returning from the East, arrived back in the Torquemada country about five minutes after her father had been killed in a gun fight. She did not know that the rough-looking Keno Forbes was honest and that Pete Dall, the gentlemanly gambler, was her father's enemy and the real cause of his death, and the result was that Keno found himself not only responsible for 40,000 dollars' worth of cattle but for a girl who had not the sense to see how much she needed protection. In " The Killers " George C. Henderson narrates a tale of loyalty and courage, and ends his story with a happy romance. V. V. L