NEW NOVELS

Southland Times, Issue 23586, 13 August 1938, Page 14

NEW NOVELS

DRAMA AT CARLICE ABBEY BIRTHDAY PARTY. By C. H. B. Kitchin. Constable and Company, London. Price 7/6. Four different oersons, all closely connected by the threads of the plot, tell this story in successive usage ot the first person singular. Isabel Carlice, elderly and strong-minded, opens the account by describing the suicide of her brother at his country home. Claude Carlice was in comfortable circumstance, and nobody seems able to provide a motive for the tragedy. Not until Dora, the dead man’s second wite, takes up the narrative and describes her liaison with the objectionable Donald Rusper does the reader begin to suspect why an apparently happy man should have wanted to escape violently from life. In the meantime an interesting situation is developing. Carlice Abbey, a considerable property, is to fall into the hands of Claude’s son Ronald when he comes of age. Ronald is a priggish undergraduate, rather weak-willed and therefore inclined to be stubborn, and anxious to immolate his inadequate individuality °P,“ le tars of communism. He decides that his best contribution to the cause would be the handing over of Carlice Abbey to the Party, to be used as some kind of political school. His Aunt Isabel tries to dissuade him, even offering to buy the property at much more than its real value. But Ronald has his mind made up, and is all the more determined because he has just been to Russia and finds it necessary to resist the processes of disillusionment. Although the struggle narrows down to the aunt and nephew the other characters fit closely into a compact plot. There is Stephen Payne, for instance, the rather weak but likeable brother of Dora, who is being victimized by Don Rusper, the trustee of their father s estate. If Stephen had not come to Carlice Abbey on the eve of Ronalds birthday and quarrelled with him over the fundamentals of socialist theory, there would have been no need for Dora to summon Rusper. And then, with all the characters under the one roof, and the hour at hand for the family secret left by Claude to be sprung as a birthday surprise there need have been no struggle in the gun room if Isabel Had not taken a hand so decisively. It is impossible to indicate the dramatic power of the climax by any faint sketch of the preliminary situation. Few detective novels achieve the sense of brooding destiny which thickens almost unbearably towards the end of the book. This is a novel of character which develops the atmosphere of a thriller and in the process loses nothing of literary, value. The people are curiously real in their reactions to the contemporary scene; although Mr Kitchin may be said to have erred in spreading the sense of impending doom through the minds of three of the main characters, so that even level-headed Isabel is inclined to believe that if she gets possession of her beloved Abbey it may be only for a year or two, after which it is likely to tie bombed or. confiscated. A. state of mind so widely pervasive cannot help but seem a projection of the author’s own attitude. But . beyond these surface fears there is a lively interest in ideas and a perception of deeper values that should appeal to thoughtful readers. This is one of the best novels of the year: experimental in form, concise and lucid in style, and unusually rich in drama. If there are uncomfortable moments this may be chiefly because the author lives in an uncomfortable age, and reflects its temper a little too faithfully in fiction. HISTORICAL NIGHTS HISTORICAL NIGHTS ENTERTAINMENT (THIRD SERIES'). By Rafael Sabatini. Hutchinson and Co., Ltd., London, through Whitcombs and Tombs. Price 7/6. This is the third volume of a popular historical series, resumed after an interval of nearly 20 years. Rafael Sabatini takes his facts from history and clothes them with imaginative fiction. As before, the historical epi-

sodes are well-chosen—in this volume they are drawn largely from the lives of famous women—and are set down in vigorous language. Mr Sabatini is able to give these centuries-old scenes all the realism of his best fiction. Among the best episodes are those dealing with Catherine of Russia, Christina of Sweden and Queen Elizabeth; but all are well worth reading.

GANGSTERS AT SEA DOVER-OSTEND. By Taffrail. Hodder ' and Stoughton Ltd., London, through W. S. Smart. Price 4/-. This successful thriller, now reprinted in a cheaper edition, describes the adventures of Geoffrey Wantage, a naval officer on leave from the China station. One night he takes a young woman to dine and dance in London, and on the homeward journey is waylaid by car bandits. But these are no ordinary gangsters. Under the leadership of a sinister person who wears an exclusive tie and speaks with impeccable accent they have planned an act of piracy in the English channel, and Wantage is taken along to navigate the yacht towards a secret anchorage. In the meantime a charming young woman from Scotland Yard has ferreted out some information, and a hot welcome awaits the gangsters when they make their landing. For those who can accept improbabilities as the legitimate stock-in-trade of thrillers this book should provide an hour or two of comfortable excitement. “Taffrail” writes breezily; his hero is undoubtedly a “sahib”; and a clima;: full of waves and flames and sudden wreckage brings justice to the law-breakers and happiness to the gallant Wantage.