Books of the Day

Southland Times, Issue 24439, 20 May 1941, Page 3

Books of the Day

NEW DETECTIVE FICTION Ngaio Marsh’s Brilliant Story SURFEIT OF LAMPREYS. By Ngaio Marsh. Collins, London, through Whitcombe and Tombs. Price 8/9. THE BALCONY. By Dorothy Cameron Disney. Robert Hale, London, through Whitcombe and Tombs. Price 8/-. FRONT PAGE MURDER. By John Bentley. Hutchinson, London, through Whitcombe and Tombs. Price 8/-. THE BLACK SOMBRERO. By Hal Pink. Hutchinson, London, through Whitcombe and Tombs. Price 8/-.

“Surfeit of Lampreys” is Miss , Marsh’s best book by far, and that is saying a good deal of an author who has already earned a place with Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie at the very top of the ladder. Her story begins in New Zealand, where the heroine, Roberta Grey, first makes the acquaintance of the lively and perennially hard up family of Lampreys. The characterization of this family is the backbone of the book, and it is done brilliantly. After an unsuccessful attempt at sheep-farming in the Dominion the Lampreys return to London, and Roberta later goes to stay with them. She finds the family in one of its periodic financial crises, and hears Lord Charles Lamprey’s appeal for assistance rejected by his elder brother, Lord Wutherwood and Rune. The Lampreys try every device to please this unpleasant old man, and fail; but as Lord Wutherwood and his wife go down in the lift the family’s problem is unexpectedly solved. Lord Wutherwood is found slumped in the lift, with a silver skewer—used a few minutes before in one of the Lampreys’ charades—thrust into his eye and brain. Chief Detective-Inspector Roderick Alleyn confronts the family, but for a long time he is defeated by their loyalty and the bewildering atmosphere of their home. The clouds seem to lift a little, but then the mystery is befogged by more horrors. “Surfeit of Lampreys” offers the reader a great deal more than a problem in detection.

Miss Marsh is continuously entertaining, and rhe has a quite exceptional flair for characterization. MURDER IN A MANSION Unlike Miss Marsh, Miss Disney does not worry about humour or charm of characterization. Suspense and excitement are her objectives, and she has achieved both in a dramatic plot which is dominated by a Civil War celebrity dead 25 years before the story opens. The sale of his house in Maryland is used as the occasion for a family reunion, to which a grand-daughter, Anne, is invited by her aunt. Anne is at once caught up in the mystery of the Hieronomos. Her tyrannical aunt is murdered in Anne’s room with a revolver which Anne has seen and handled. Anne and the young man next door become the chief suspects. They discover little about the murder, but they continually discover secrets of John Hieronomo’s past. There are two more deaths, and Anne has need of all her pluck and resource before the murderer is discovered and the family skeleton is laid. The last chapters are tremendously exciting. In the gloom of an old “hide-out” of the slave days Anne finds that she is holding the murderer’s hand instead of her lover’s. She barely escapes, but the incident leads her, as it does an astute sheriff, to the truth. Like “The Golden Swan Murder,” one of the best of last year’s thrillers, “The Balcony” is engrossing from the first page to the last.

“Front Page Murder” is told by an “Americanized” English private detective who has intercepted stolen jewels on an Atlantic liner. Several attempts are made to murder him on the voyage, and the action becomes still more furious in New York, where he is hunted by rival gangs. The dialogue is lively, after the Cheyney style. In “The Black Sombrero” Inspector Docker sets out to destroy a dope ring. Murder and assault, mysterious messages and shadowy figures in black capes all have their places in Mr Pink’s vigorous tale.

The Adventures of a Vagrant THOMASHEEN JAMES. Man-of-No-Work. By Maurice Walsh. W. R. Chambers, Ltd., London, through Whitcombe and Tombs. Price 8/-. Maurice Walsh has made a special niche for himself as a writer of fullblooded romances. In his latest book he relaxes into an anecdotal mood and builds up a series of humorous adventures round the person of Thomas James O’Doran, known to his intimates as Thomasheen James. He is a man of the roads, an Irishman with a wheedling tongue, a shrewdness that touches —but never quite passes—the edge of villainy, and a remarkable talent for extricating himself from the troubles of his own making. His relations with the author (who writes in the first person singular) are peculiar: a blend of friendship and parasitism. He dislikes work of any kind, but will potter in the garden with broom and rake, although he is likely to disappear without warning for long periods. When he returns there is always a wild story on his tongue, as of his impetuous wooing of a tinker girl, or of his trout-poach-ing while charged with the care of an absent-minded professor. Sometimes he draws his patron (employer is not quite the word) into one of his escapades—especially in the search for a missing shotgun that takes them into an enemy’s stronghold. The adventures are always ingenious and always plausible, for they are based on the facts of character and the impulses of a frail human nature. Mr Walsh is a sound psychologist and a humorist with a flair for quick-running dialogue. Thomasheen is one of the most delightful characters in recent fiction. It is pleasant to meet him in the summer warmth of a garden near Dublin and to accompany him on roads that lead to joyous and fantastic experience. More should be heard of him hereafter.

New Westerns

(1) GUN THROWER. By William L. Hopson. (2) COW BOY AFOOT. By Raley Brien. (3) FEUDERS’ GOLD. By Kim Knight. (4) BORDER EAGLE. By Walter A. Tompkins. AU published by Hutchinson, London, and received through Whitcombe and Tombs. Price 5/6 each. “Westerns” are more limited in the scope of their plots than detective stories or thrillers, with the result that the same stock situations have to serve almost every author. A great deal depends, therefore, on the skill and ingenuity with which the situations are handled. These four stories follow different patterns, but they have in common an ample measure of gun fire and romance. t “Feuders’ Gold” tells how an age-old feud in the cattle country was brought to an end. In “The Border Eagle”

Trigger Trenton, “the greased-lightning gunman,” avenges his brother’s death. “Gun-Thrower” is the story of an outlaw with a 10,000-dollar reward on his head. The vindication of Dave Rogan after his arrival on foot at an Arizona trading post is the theme of “Cowboy Afoot.” All four stories are good samples of their kind.