28 MAY 1921, Page 21

READABLE NOVELS.—The Cotton Broker. By John Owen. (Hodder and Stoughton.

8s. 6d. net.)—A vigorous character study. The cotton background is vividly and romantically contrived, but the real interest of the book centres in the inter- acting personalities of the man, his mother, and his wife.

Mr. Dimock. By Mrs. Denis O'Sullivan. (The Bodley Head. Fs. 6d. net.)—Americans, Serbians, Irish and other cosmopolites caught in the backwash of the war. The plot is diffuse without being complicated, and therefore not very satisfactory, but the characters live, and the Oxfordshire scenery is charmingly described.—The Conversations of Padan-Arain. By David Donald. (R.T.S., 4 Bouverie Street, E.C. 4. 5s. net.)—Real 1.umour clothed in authentic Scots.—The Valley of Silent Men. By James 0. Curwood. (Hodder and Stoughton. 88. 6d. net.) —An exciting story. An officer of the Royal North-West Mounted Police, operating on the Athabasca. River, becomes involved in the consequences of a crime of which he is innocent. It is the hunter hunted over again ; and there is also a woman in the case.