NEW BOOKS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16506, 6 August 1919, Page 9

NEW BOOKS.

The Red Hawk. —By A. G. Hales, author of the jamous Al'Glusky books. London: Hoddcr and Stoughton.

Mr. Hales breaks now ground in this story, the principal setting of which is •in Buenos Aires and the groat cattle country at the back of that city. The story deals with the adventures of an American naval officer who was cashiered alter conviction on n charge of betraying a societ of American-Argentine negotinns to Germany and England. To revenge himself he embarks upon a career of cattle-raiding on a huge scale, in conjunction with a gang of which The Red Hawk, a very beautiful and clever woman, is a member. Their catlie raiding exploits and their encounters with the authorities give the author an opportunity to construct a very exciting story, abounding in dramatic situations.

Inlrigue.—By Clive Desmond. London Hoddcr and Stoughton.

Among the preparations which Germany made for tho groat war was the .sending of emissaries to England and other countries to spy and gather information which might come in useful, ’j has it was that the outbreak of war found many German? occupying official positions in England, trusted as though they were British, and allowed to know whatever they wished about tho British war plans. “Intrigue” deals with this sanation and tells how HnnUey Rivers, passing as an Englishman twpactnally a Prussian, became head ofjpßie Intelligence Department at Whitehall. There was a leakage of information concerning the British plans, and the story relates how Captain Wynfield, with the assistance of the Countess Bresczanyi, fathoms the mystery and’ discovers that Huntley Rivers himself is tho traitor. The story is well worked out. though the •situations are sometimes a. little too impossible.

Beatrice Ashleigh.—-By F. E. Mills Young, author of Grit Lawless, etc. London : Hoddcr and Stoughton.

Beatrice Ashleigh is introduced to tho reader as a motherless girl of fourteen giving her younger brother a hammering. Six years arc passed over and she has grown into a beautiful woman. Her father dies, leaving her practically penniless, hut slip finds a homo with an uncle, a country rector in Devonshire, where she engages in parish work, and incidentally makes a conquest of her cousin, who is his father’s curate. She, however, had previously lost her heart to one .Hurst, who becomes badly smashed. up in the war, a fact which causes misunderstandings to be. removed and brings them together in the end. Though in some parts a little prosy, interest in the story is well maintained.

“To young Australia, tho Islands spell romance—living and real at the very door. Fiji is but five days from Sydney, Samoa only a few days further on; all the wild, wicked archipelagoes ’of tho Western Pacific within ten days; and New Guinea, the wonder country, only a week from Queensland.” But'as the majority of Australians never get tho opportunity to see the Islands, .Miss Beatrice Grimshaw, in “Tho Coral Queen,” brings the Islands to Australians. This popular author, herself now a plantation owner, has for some years bad her stories of tho Pacific featured in tho world's leading magazines. “Tho Coral Queen” is the first of three novels the N.S.W. Bookstall Co., Ltd., of Sydney has undertaken to publish in its shilling fiction series. Evd Landan, an Adelaide girl, finds herself on a visit to Papua; also she discovers herself in love with an Australian magistrate administering a district in tho wilds of the Commonwealth’s little-known territory. Marriage, however, is impracticable, for a Papuan magistrate’s salary won’t keep a wife, a mother and an invalid sister in every comfort. Then Magistrate Ronald Kane goes south on furlough, and meantime Eve nurses at tho Port Moresby hospital. For tending to a dying pearl diver she secures tho ownership or tho only beds of pink coral in the world; almost simultaneously she learns that Ronald has married money. Then this unusual girl, the Coral Queen as she is popularly known, throws convention to the winds and roams the Pacific, providing tho reader with a series of unusual and interesting adventure. Later ex-Magistratc Kane appeal's again—but that would he giving away a good story. No author is writing of the Islands in so entertaining a way as Miss Grimshaw, and her “Coral Queen” is certain to enjoy popularity it deserves. (N.S.W. Bookstall Co., Ltd., Is.)

Another novel by Miss Beatrice Grimsbaw, from the N.S.W. Bookstall Co.’s press, follows in quick succession on her “Coral Queen.” “White Savage Simon” is an Islands story of a quite unusual tvpe. The principal character has spent the whole of bis youth as a captive of a Central Papuan tribe, of cannibals. In his late teens an expedition secures his release and ho is sent to the city and educated. But despite the culture he acquires be is still the “white Ravage,” capable of the uncanny physical feats of the mountain cannibals. After a spell at the war, Simon returns to the Islands, whore ho falls in wit|i Willis Rothery, poet. Then this strange pair—the physical wonder and the poet dreamerstray from island to island, meeting all sorts of unusual adventure. “White Savage Simon” is one of tho best of tho recent additions to the popular shilling “Bookstall” series of Australian novels' The volume is capably illustrated by Percy Lindsay.