Novels in Brief
Leaden Hill. By Richard Crompton. (Hodder and Stougi ton. 7s. 6d.)—To Leadon Hill, an unspoilt, red-roofed, back biting English village comes, from her dead father's Italia studio and the society of men famous in art and letters, English girl, to set up house and learn to know her countryme and countrywomen. The story of her four months' visit t her native land is consistently if quietly entertaining, and crowded with characters drawn with a truth and a mall there is no resisting. * * * It is questionable if it permissible for a novelist to deal—no matter how artistieall —with the great social taboos, unless it is emphasized that t break them unwittingly is a tragedy, and wittingly a crin In Taboo (Hutchinson, 7s. 6d.) Mr. Wilbur Daniel Stec reticently and not without distinction, treats of the affectio between a young father and his grown-up daughter, wit' when the story opens is passing beyond the paternal a filial stage. It transpires presently that the girl is h. daughter only in law ; but the law still holds, and its fi defiance leaves an unpleasant and painful impression. * * The imbroglio of the two sisters in Mr. MacClure's novel, T Secret Fool (Harrap, 7s. 6d.), is so gratuitously repulsive ul no amount of cleverness or ingenuity could absolve him. the story is clever and ingenious, and the character of Fe Blaine, shy, introspective, fastidious, kindly and amorous, mi sketched with care and insight. * * * To all lovers of hunt for buried treasure Blind Carnes, by Dornford Tats
(Hodder and Stoughton, 7s. 6d.), will be very welcome, for er is a first-rate yarn spun with style and gusto. The scene is a old castle in Carinthia, once the home of a robber Bars
* * * Although The Man in the Sandhills, by Anton Marsden (Jarrolds, 7s. fid.), is described as a mystery nor there is really no mystery about it. It is the story of a n hunt, which lasts from the moment when John Creed bar' he has killed the card-sharper to the time when Creed's lan. cence is acclaimed. It is a story of incident, told with 4° and its sentiment is not unduly sentimental. * * * E` if Moray Dalton has not fulfilled his duty and given his reade a clue to the real culprit, his story, The Black Wings (Jan's] 7s. 6d.), is sensational enough. An old rogue and blackmail mysteriously murdered we guess for the sake of jewels riff years ago from the Medici tombs, a hero of royal blood. beautiful girl victim, and a genial detective divide the honou * * * The main faults to be found with Lady (A.) scott new novel, The Sealed Envelope (Hutchinson, 7s. 6cL), are' lack of probability and itsstraggling narrative. The Sea envelope of the title contains details of some horrible Invent of national importance. The wife of the high official who 1,; charge of it exchanges it for a dummy that is given to her by money-lender who is blackmailing her, and who then lea' the original on her hands. There is a turbid and very mode love-story, and such a huge crowd of secondary charactf that it is difficult at times to see what is happening to.t principals. * * * The story of Jean Vignaud's Sarah Terrible (Thornton Butterworth, 7s. 6d.) is concerned with dock labourers of Algiers. There is a certain flatness in narrative, due perhaps to the fact that it is .a Panslatw/6
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