HOLIDAY NOVELS
Mr. Arthur Mills points out in The Danger Game (Hutchinson', 7s. ed.) the many perils undergone by the landlord class when they try to live as usual in post-War days. The rich marriage of the hero proves no solution. There are some admirable descriptions of hunting scenes. * * * Cairo and the political trouble of modern Egypt are the scene and subject of Miss Ross's A Man with Hts Back to the East (Thornton Butterworth. 7s. 6d.). The characters are conventional, but the plot exciting. * * * Topical interest attaches to A Village Millionaire (Leonard Parsons, 7s. 6d.), which is apparently a first novel by Mr. Richard Kinver. Joe Halkett, is a mill hand who becomes a millionaire and buys the mill in which he has always worked. The plot is also concerned with a love affair between Halkett's daughter and the son of the late proprietor of the mill. * * There are so few stories about eighteenth-century America that readers will welcome Mr. Ellery Clark's pirate story, Carib Gold (Hurst and Blackett, 7s. 6d.), the scene of which is laid off the coast of New Jersey nearly two hundred years ago. It is difficult to make a pirate story original, but this is lively reading with a happy ending. * * A very modern young woman is described by Mr. Wawn in The Honest Lovers (Melrose. 7s. 6d.). Jean's parents are indeed long-suffering people and must have been thankful when she was safely married in her Cornish church to the man of her choice. She probably led him a terrible life.
* * An orgy of pre-War sentimentality is indulged in by Miss Everett-Green in The Back Number (Stanley Paul. 7s. 6d. net). The virtuous heroine, Susan Smith, wears her skirts to her ankles and keeps " Woman's crowning glory " safe upon her head : these are the outward marks of her state of inward grace and of the courtesy and suavity of her manners. Modern girls appear in the story merely to throw Susan's merits into higher relief.
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