OTHER NOVELS
The Red Mass. By Valentine Williams. (Hodder and Stoughton. 7s. 6d. net.)—A thriller placed on the very appro- priate stage of Paris in the days of the French Revolution. The hero, Hector Fotheringay, having fallen into dire disgrace regimentally, is sent on the orders of Mr. Pitt to fill the post of a captured Dutch revolutionary and becomes secretary to the notorious Couthon. Even more striking than Hector's hairbreadth escapes from detection is the account of his delivery- of a message to Fouquier, the Public Accuser, at the moment when the Toilette de la Guillotine is being performed on that day's batch of victims. The reader would be really worried by his anxiety for the unhappy hero were it not that the dates when the net of circumstance is closing round him are those of the first days of the month Thermidor in the second year of the Republic. Even when escape seems impossible, if Hector can but carry on for a few more days, it is obvious that the fall of Robespierre can be counted on to save his life.
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