RNADABLB NovErs.—The Pitcher of Fate. By Iris Marshall. 1Stanley PauL
88. 6d. net.)—A Russo-Polish historical novel of the period immediately following the death of Ivan the Terrible. h little less history and a little more of the romantic element would probably have made a better book, but the true story of
those tragic and troubled times is sufficiently dramatic in itself to hold the reader's attention.—The Iron Bell. By C. E. Lawrence. (Daniel O'Connor. 8s. 6d. net.)—A pathetic picture of a lodging-house slavey who is haunted throughout her dreary life by fear of two things : madness and the workhouse. The sordid setting of the story is relieved by the unconscious nobility of the heroine and by the directness and simplicity with which the tale is told.—The Syrens. By Dot Allan. (Heinemann. Is.) —A first novel of unequal achievement but of decided promise. The scene is laid mainly in Glasgow, but the hero, following the call of the blood inherited from a buccaneering father, leaves the business he has built up there to wander on the high seas. The machinery of the plot is at times rather too obvious, but the considerable amount of really good writing scattered throughout the book is a compensating factor and foreshadows for the author a further and greater success.
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