NEW NOVELS

Southland Times, Issue 23816, 13 May 1939, Page 14

NEW NOVELS

DETECTIVE STORIES THE SECOND CENTURY OF DETECTIVE STORIES. Edited by E. C. Bentley. Hutchinson, London, through Whitcombe & Tombs. Price 6/-. “The Second Century of Detective Stories” offers supremely good value for money. It contains no fewer than 30 detective stories by authors ranging from Edgar Allan Poe to Ellery Queen. Many methods of detection are represented, and as many styles of writing. The volume is edited by E. C. Bentley, author of the classic, “Trent’s Last Case,” who has written by way of introduction an interesting analysis of the technique of the detective story. THREE BEST SELLERS PEOPLE LIKE OURSELVES. A collection of three novels by O. Douglas. Hodder & Stoughton, Lon- . don, through W. S. Smart, Sydney. Price 7/6. , O. Douglas’s three most popular novels, “Penny Plain, “Pink Sugar” and “Priorsford,” have been assembled in a single volume which is offered at the published price of one of them. These stories need no introduction and no recommendation. They are unfailingly fresh and cheerful, and ably written. Miss Douglas’s characters are convincingly drawn, and she is thoroughly familiar with the English countryside in which her stories are set. LIGHT ROMANCE GIRL ON HIS HANDS. By Maysie Greig. Hodder & Stoughton, London, through W. S. Smart, Sydney. Price 7/6. Maysie Greig has won a big following for her romances. “Girl on His Hands” begins with the staging of a beauty contest at a rainy seaside resort, Felbeck-on-Sea. A film contract is offered, in fun, as part of the prize, but the winner takes both the contest and the prize in earnest. She makes her way to Hollywood with the two young promoters- of the contest, and there a romantic story is brought to a happy end. FRUSTRATION APRON STRINGS. By Mary Kelaher. New Century Press Pty., Ltd., Sydney. Price 6/- net. Mary Kelaher’s new book entitles her to be named among Australia’s promising writers. It opens with a deathbed scene. David Warren is dying in middle age, and as he lies with a dim awareness of female presences at his bedside his mind gropes back to past, times and he lives once again his story of frustration. His first years are spent at a station homestead, where he learns early to recognize the dominant influence of his mother. Rose Warren is a pretty but rather foolish woman who has committed one major indiscretion. Married to a man for whom she has no real love, she has been attracted by someone else; in later years David discovers that this other man was his father. When Rose’s husband dies she moves into a country town, taking David with her and leaving Peter, her eldest son, to manage the station. Peter marries a banker’s daughter, and eventually David is deprived of his share in the estate. In normal circumstances this trickery might not have mattered a great deal. Rose was comparatively wealthy, and could have made ample provision for her favourite son. But a second and disastrous marriage leaves her a widow once again—this time a poor one. Her failure to give David a proper education allows him no alternative to a second-rate job in a stock agent’s office; and when he marries—with his mother’s encouragement—he is firmly tied in an irksome

captivity. The rest of his life is a long struggle to escape from poverty and a loveless environment. When at last he finds love he is forced to snatch at happiness guiltily, and the affair ends in the triumph of his bleak household. The story is written with insight and restraint. David is perhaps a little weak, but the fault is not altogether his own. His wife, Emily, and his daughters are convincingly portrayed. Miss Kelaher has a sense of character and pn easy style that should allow her to write successful, perhaps important, novels in the