FICTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26853, 18 August 1948, Page 2

FICTION

The Dupe. By Robert Close. Georgian House. 11s. Merry Again. By Claire Mallory. Angus and Robertson. The Crooked Bough. By John Remenham. Macdonald and Company. 8s 6d. Murder of a Mate The murder of a “ bucko ” mate on a sailing ship bound round the Horn is the theme of Robert Close’s new novel, The Dupe. The author, however. is really concerned with the character of a weakling who accepts the “credit” for disposing of a bully and who finds that he has also to accept the retribution for the crime. This is a vigorously-written story with a convincing atmosphere. Girls’ School

Few, if any, stories of life in New Zealand schools had been written until Claire Mallory published her “Merry Begins” which rapidly found favour and the second of the series Merry Again cannot fail to carry on the success of the first book. Merry and her friends at school are lively young people and their story is in the best tradition of school yarns with the added zest for New Zealand readers of familiar place names and atmosphere. Warped Mentality

John Remenham’s main achievement in The Crooked Bough lies in his creation of a thoroughly unpleasant character. Hester Trevallion’s crooked spine, added to her father’s callous attitude, has developed in her a horribly deformed mind, and this is nourished in its evil machinations by an introduction to black magic as practised by a couple of negresses. The fascination of the tale is rather morbid but one becomes engrossed, for instance, in the problem of the form in which the inevitable retribution will overtake Hester.