PLEASANT NOVELS
WE, all of-us, have a favourite day-dream as to what we should do if we were given a considerable sum of money. Audrey Farrant, Mr. Whitelaw's heroine in The Island of Romance (Holden and Co., 7s. 6d.) wins a Derby sweepstake and contrives to make the most of her luck. She goes to a mythical island kingdom in the Mediterranean and there enjoys the most thrilling adventures in company with her fiancé. Revolutions, secret service and treasure hunting, all are touched on, and if only " Maratia " were a rather more credible place the story would be exciting reading. As it is, the modern middle-class characters do not make a coherent whole with their imaginary setting. * * * Mr. J. S. Fletcher in The Massingham Butterfly (Herbert Jenkins, 7s. 6d.) has given us a collection of excellent mystery stories. They are thrilling without being gruesome and have an element of unexpected humour in them. * * * It is always exciting to see what new and ingenious plot Mr. Phillips Oppenheim has created. The Prodigals of Monte Carlo (Hodder and Stoughton, 7s. 6d.) is the story of the last fling of a baronet, who has received his death sentence from a Harley Street specialist. However, the specialist turns out to be a fraud (perhaps unfortunately for the baronet) and the hero finds himself alive and married to his mani- curist. * * * The Dangerfield Talisman (Berm, 7s. 6d.), by Mr. J. J. Connington, is an original and interesting mystery story concerning the famous Dangerfield Talisman and the unravelling of the Dangerfield secret by a guest at a house Party. The characters are well and humorously drawn. * * * De Quineey's Murder as a Fine Art may have been the inspiration of Mr. Eden Phillpotts' new collection of short stories, Peacock House (Hutchinson,. 78. 6d.), for with one or two exceptions all the tales have murder as their subject. They are all exciting and ingenious, but there is no denying that the cumulative effect is a certain belittling of the sanctity of human life. * * * Matthew Osborne, the hero of Dazzle, by Clare Thornton (Philip Allan, 7s. 6d.), was a young gentleman with an exceedingly weak head, for the publication of one successful novel was sufficient to turn it. Valetta, Matthew's wife, is described as a " fighter," and the foes which she has to combat are her husband's laziness and flirtations. The story deals with the new-rich and new-poor. It is compe- tently written but lacks vitality. * * * One feels that such nippy girls as are condemned to batten on " margarined bread, salted ham, and cool and congealing eggs " must love a work in which there is much talk of Ciro's, where the cocktail (its leading motif) foams throughout the pages as on the cover, wherein we read of " twilit kisses," and where Mildred Atkinson draws " luxuriantly into her lungs the scent of Chypre." The friendly publisher remarks that Mr. Alec Waugh m Love in these Days (Chapman and Hall, 7s. 6d.) by looking life in the,face is apt to annoy the hidebound. So we know just where we are.
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