BOOKS REVIEWED.

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14601, 26 February 1921, Page 9 (Supplement)

BOOKS REVIEWED.

CURRENT LITERATURE. "The Last Fortnight," by Mary Agnes Hamilton (W. Collins, Sons and Co., London and Auckland). Readers of "Dead Yesterday" and "Full Circle," two of Miss Hamilton's earlier books, will be prepared 1" find in "The Last Fortnight" a finished piece of writing, but couched in a minor key. It is a sad story, and yet granting the marriage of a girl like Pauline to a man like Dick Cordery and the presence in the home of a mother-in-law of the type of Mrs Cordery, and the resultant tragedy seems inevitable. "The Last Fortnight" par. takes something of the quality of Mr Frank Swinnerton's "Nocturne". In that both authors possess the gift of condensing what seems like a lifetime into a marvellously short space of time. The history of dreams and of dying men reveals a state of mind when an infinity of thoughts and feelings pass like a flash; Pauline's experience with her husband and mother-in-law during that "Last Fortnight" leave a similar impression upon the mind of the reader. It may be ob jected that Pauline is an impossible character; at least it will be admitted lhat she was unusual, whereas Dick is the common or garden variety of handsome, careless husband, bent' on having a good time, who can be met by the hundred on the street of any fair-sized town. The character of the mother-in-law. fond of her son and intensely dissatisfied with his wife, Is a masterpieee of work which goes' far to redeem the almost morbid sadness of parts of the story. The traoic endine is hastened by the drowning of the poor little waif of a white kittem picked up and housed by Pauline, onlv to meet its death at the hands of Dick. The artistry of "The Last Fortnight" is unquestionable, yet Miss Hamilton's admirers may well express the hone that she will shortly employ her undoubted talent on a more cheerful subject.

"Kindred of the Dust."—By Peter Kyne. (Hoddcr and Stoughton, London).

The background of this book Is a lumber milling town on the Skookum River, away back in one of the American North-Western States. The principal figures in a vigorously written and very readable story are a strongwilled, very masterful, but at times very lovable man of Scots descent, who is locally known as'the laird, his son, Donald, and a spirited, handsome girl, Nan of the Sawdust Pile, with whom the sawmiller's son and heir falls desperately in love, despite the fact that she is the object of no little loenl and quite undeserved slander. Between an obstinate father and eqiKilly obstinate son wages for a time a combat of desires nnd wills, a rather stagey Irishman, Dirty Dan O'Leary, a good-hearted, humorous fellow, also playing a lending role in the comedydrama which is enacted on Skookum River. There are, too, several wellknown minor characters, including the Laird's wife and daughters, and a general old busybody. Andrew Davey, general manager of the sawmilling company, a man of strange oaths, -but a lovable old fellow. As all who know "Gappy Ricks" and "The Valley of the Giants" will cheerfully testify Mr Kyne is a born story-teller, and his Intr'st nnyiM may be eomnv'nded to all who enjoy a judicious mixture of the dramatic and the sentimental.

The Melwood Mystery.—By James Mead. (Dodd, Mead and Co., New York).

This is a well-written story, which opens with the mysterious murder of Zimony Newman, a young Hungarian woman ,in a fashionable Washington hotel. A young and rising Senator is suspected of die murder, and enlists the services of a detective who scorns the old-fashioned methods of the local Chief of Police, and reconstructs the crime in accordance with a very daring theory of his own. A prominent figure in the story is a German-American who makes perfervid professions of loyalty 1o his adopted country. This man, Felix Conrad, has a tool, a wretched dope fiend, who, so we learn in the last chapter, has actually shot the victim out of. personal revenge, whilst Conrad merely meant him to send a secret message enclosed in a Indict which was to be intercepted by a screen. Before the truth is finally ascertained, other people besides the Senator are suspected, and the detective has a tough job to solve what appears to be an inextricable problem. The characters in the story, notably the cool, self-possessed, and resourceful Conrad, are much more carefully drawn than is usual in fiction of this kind.

Pengard—Awake.—By Rlph Straus. The plot is concerned with the solving of a problem of identity. A scholarly Englishman, visiting America in ( lpany' with his sister for the purpose of collecting information for a book on the history of armour, makes the acquaintance f a bookseller in Chicago, John Pengard, a man of uncommon type who has built up a line business, but who appears, neverthe less, to be subject to some menial disturbance, and who is oppressed and unhappy. At Iniics he disappears from Chicago, sometimes for weeks. His new friends succeed in winning his confidence, ami he confesses that he is under the control of another —"no Hartley Sylvester, who has recently pubirshed a remarkable book on the subject of the human will. To help turn the Englishman visits Sylvester at his home in Brighton, and finds him fully aware <>f the position, but nursing :i strong resentment against Pengard. Much mystery surrounds the relations of the two, until the Englishman joins forces willi a remarkable doctor, whom he meets by chance, and who is keenly interested in certain passages in Sylvester's book. Together they visit Sylvester, who, under 'he dortor's influence, is overcome by raininess, and emerges from the faint in the form and likeness of Pengard. It is not, however, an ordinary case of dual personality. The doctor is unable for some time to determine which is the real man, Pengard or Sylvester, and much of the interest of this clever and arresting story lies in the solution nf thai problem. The manner in which the solution Is discovered, is however, the least convincing pari of the whole story. Mr Straus has much skill in character drawing, and the group nf characters in this bonk are all well drawn. His love stories, too, are cleverly interwoven, and. though subservient to the main design, lend colour and interest.