LITERATURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3514, 19 July 1921, Page 54

LITERATURE.

BOOK NOTICES. “The Azure Lake.” By Cecil Adair. London : Stanley Paul and Co. Cecil Adair is one of the most popular of recent writers of fiction, and, it appears, is known as “The Joy of Life” -novelist. A number of these “Joy” novels, inclucuvs “Gabriel’s Garden,” a special favourite, juG u.'«« beino- issued in Stanley Paul’s “Sell at ;«ipht” edition, price 2s net a volume. The t«'el before us is quite in harmony with the title given its author. A rose-coloured atmosphere pervades the book. The heroes an-a heroines are young, charming, and good; the two heroines equally lovely in their diverse styles. All the people of the story are sweet-na lured, and the story runs happily, with just enough temporary puzzlement to make it a story. Its setting is of the loveliest, an exquisite West Indian island, and the descriptions of the rich tropical vegetation and the beauties of dawn and sunset are in themselves sufficient to recommend the book. “The Azure Lake” occupies the basin of an extinct crater, and or. its steeply-rising wooded banks stands the villa residence to which comes Ihe English-reared heroine and heiress, Patricia Baskerville, as she is held to be. A description of an island sunset may be quoted : “The azure of the sky began to change, as though an unseen hand drew across its flawless purity a glittering veil of gold. I rem the west there floated up a tiny fleet of rosy cloudfilms like fairy boats adrift upon a halcyon sea. To the cast a rich plum bloom spread itself from the far horizon, working very slowly upward towards the zenith; and as if to meet and greet the soft approach of night, streamers of coloured fire —rose and emerald, amethyst, and pure blazing scarlet—launched themselves from the western gates of dying day in some throbbing ecstasy of translucent glory, as though to leave behind them a memory of magical beauty which the world might cherish through the night. The lake itself glowed and blazed beneath the splendour of the light above. It lay like a magic sapphire in the deep, oval cup-like hollow, completely surrounded by steeply shelving banks, clothed by luxuriant semi-tropical vegetation. which in places verged upon the weird richness of actual tropical conditions.” The story turns upon the inheriance of the Baskerville title and estates. The plot is ingenious, though the coincidence of two cases of mistaken identity, both persons concerned being principal actors and connected with the Baskerville claim, imposes rather a breaking strain on probability. But in a story of the tone of “The Azure Lake” this does not jar as it would in one more realistically conceived. “The Azure Lake” may be warmly recommended to that large body of readers who in fiction look for something much pleasanter than the world they know. Its period is that following the" South African war. in which both heroes have been engaged. Another parcel of Mr John Long’s reprints is to hand, containing Curtis Yorke’s “Delphine” : two of Nat Gould’s racing stories. “In the Paddock” and “A Great Coup” ; ‘The Bartenstein Case,” by J. S. Fletcher; “Our Ally,” by M. E. Francis; and “The Tocsin,” by those regretted popular writers in collaboration Alice and Claude Askew. “The Tocsin” is a war novel of the first weeks of the Great War. The financial panic of the early days affects disastrously the family of the heroine. The war scenes are those of the invasion of Belgium, and we are shown the burning of Louvain. The heroine’s lover goes to fight in Belgium, and. owing to the scheming of her worldly sister, trouble comes between them. One would hardly think the heroine, knowing her sister’s character, would be so ready to believe her lover faithless on the strength of a verbal message conveyed by the latter; but we are familiar with such inconsistencies where the course of true love must be impeded. The story, a short one, is pleasantly told, and though the interest in war stories has passed lor the present, will please many readers. J. S. Fletcher specialises in tales of crime, mystery, ana marvel; his “three Days’ Terror’’ (lately noticed! being perhaps his most notable achievement. “Ilie Bartenstein Case” is a more ordinary “mysterious murder” story. Mr Bartenstein, a millionaire of objectionable character, is found dead in his library, stabbed through the back by a swordstick, which is found near him, and recognised by the hero of the story as his lost property. The tracing- of the swordstick to the perpetrator of the deed—a every dilfcrent person from those at first falling under suspicion—makes up a narrative offering plenty of the sensational detective interest. j Delphine, the heroine who gives her name to Curtis Yorke’s novel, is a young girl of half-French parentage and French upbringing, who. left an orphan, comes to live with the grandfather, Sir John Somerset. Her mother has been a stage rlancer. and Delphine, a bewitching fairvlike creature, herself dances like a sylph. She is a regular imp of mischief, but trial shows that she has a heart, and very eonddcrablc intelligence and strength of purpose. Her grandfather dies, and she goes to London to make her wav in the world, cutting herself off from Hie rest of her English friends, owing to the impression made on her by the discovery of her illegitimate birth. Of course, such a girl must have lovers; and finally she finds that the misfortune of her history need be no bar to happiness. “Our Alty,” by M. E, Francis, is a 1 very pleasant story, a little out of the common run, of English rural life. Alty, j i healthy outdoor life-loving girl, takes, the place of farm lad with a neighbour- | lug yeoman farmer, that she may earn

good wages and live at home with her old grandmother. She drives the farmer’s milk cart, and this opens up a brief romance that does not end happily. But this is not the cud of the story, and Alty finds the happiness she deserves with the man who loves her truly. There is mingled humour and pathos in the opening chapters telling of the death of Alty’s grandfather and the preparations for that greatest of ceremonies in the lives of the poor —a properly-conducted funeral. Nat Gould’s stories need no recommendation to liis numerous admirers; but it should be mentioned that “In the Paddock” now appears for the first time, not having been previously published in any form.