OTHER NOVELS.—The Pentagram. By Huntly Robert- son. (Grant Richards. 7s.
6d. net.)—A close and intelligent study of a modern adolescent placed in difficult circumstances. The opening of the story is very successful ; but the interest is not completely sustained. The Second Wife. By Lilian Arnold. (Thornton Butterworth. 7s. 6d. net.)—The lady who fills the title role marries her husband in the full knowledge that he has been tried for the murder of his first wife and acquitted. The way in which a perfectly groundless sus- picion takes root in her mind is cleverly developed by the author.—Poirot Investigates. By Agatha Christie. (John Lane. 7s. 6d. net.)—Ingenious mysteries which the Belgian detective, Poirot, solves by hard thinking. The usual foil of the stupid assistant is duly provided.—A Muster of Ghosts. Compiled and with an Introduction by Bohun Lynch. (Cecil Palmer. '7s. 6d. net.)—It must be confessed that a whole series of ghost stories, by very excess of horror, ceases to terrify, and though Mr. Bohun Lynch ironically recommends the reader to peruse these examples late at night, he may be assured that this can be done with perfect impunity, for the thrills of any given story cancel out those of the last one read. Taken by themselves the stories are good, but the best two were written in the last century.— The Ladies of Lyndon. By Margaret Kennedy. (Heinemann. 7s. 6d.)—A very readable first novel on the suggestive subject of a genius brought up in a conventionally-minded family. He shakes himself free, but even the War—while making them suffer—cannot bring them to a new outlook.
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