THE NOVEL SHELF.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 230, 28 September 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE NOVEL SHELF.

A NEW P. C. WHEN. Mr. P. C. Wren has won fame and fortune- by his inimitable eoldier stoi'ie,i and now lie- has issued a very solid pieci of imaginative biography .which compares unfavourably with earlier work, The- industry is there, but the charm of rushing adventure is misfliiig. The hero is a particularly "cranky" voung man, who does not draw our interest or sympathy. "Soldiers of Misfortune" (John Murray) contains, however, several well'drawn and likeable characters, of which our favourite is the "Old Pirate," the "sly old rascal who has "seen life" and lived it, and those who have any leaning toward* the prize ring will revel in the chapters about boxing. There ai'o welcome fragments of soldiers' conversation and their doings quite up to tiifc author's old standard. Cleopatra as a modern girl, and almost recklessly modern in her girlishnese, is Mrs. Bar ring tori's "Laughing Queen" (Harrap). How her people managed to retain respect for so unreasoning and impetuous a beauty ia a marvel. Wo have always imagmed Cleopatra as Shakespeare pictured her, an ideal lover, but With a maiesty, a dignity iiinate and never varying, Her contempt for anyone without daring, her adventurous spirit, her readhieae to give all for love, her firm yet gentle way with her girl attendants, all impressed Uβ with the strong character of a noble regal woman, but tiever have we seen her as a-gossiping; 'querulous, disdainful young beauty of the Hollywood screen, too hard for teare, too greedy for true ambition, too conscious of her own bdftiity to be truly beautiful. But once t is admitted that Mrs. Barrington'g Cleopatra is correct to type the whole story of the "Laughing Queen" /Its together admirably. *'Di'Double-Di," by Constance Mackness (Cornstalk Company, through Angus and Robertson), a book for girls, is perhaps a little too true to nature, for the girls selected as heroines are unfortunately not quite honourable and certainly not gentlewomen. If accepted as models by young readers their shiftiness, deceit and rudeness inay be mistaken for schoolgirl courage. That the unpleasant young persons are allowed to

partly reform in the, end does not neutralise the objectionable impression of the beginning. There is a . kind of naughtiness Which is. forgivable and attractive, and this authoress has, we think, previously been content, to express misbehaviour in such terms. When Blackmore had written "Lorna Doone," he said his greatest praise came froni a critic who found the book "as good as Devonshire creain—almost.' 5 When we said that Mrs. Elizabeth Rowell's "The Beehive" would rank with "Seven Little Australians," we said the best we knew. The sequel to "The Beehive," "Sunset Hill," is no more than a. continuation of the. original story and. ihows no falling off, except that, as unfortunately happens to those who tell stories of children, there comes a time

when they simply must grow up (we are not forgetting Peter Pan) and somehow the love the children have had becomes no more than a treasured memory for those who have given it. "Sunset Hill," however, manages the growing-up delightfully. In "Dancers in the Dark" (Herbert Jenkins), Mrs. Patrick Macgill tells o-f two sisters who are telephone operators j one is wayward, and her indiscretions put her sister into gaol. However the heroine wins fame and fortune and love. "The Scarlet Sin," by Mrs. Vietoi , Richard (Hodder and Stoughton), deals with a man with a past from which it seems impossible to escape. There is a murder mystery, and a love story . runs through the book. In "Witch Hazel" (Herbert Jenkins) Mr. W. Eiley writes interestingly of Yorkshire life. The heroine is endowed with second sight. "Behind the Devil Screen," by Keith Orbison (John Long), is a story based on life in China, with all the native Colouring and vivid surroundings of Peking. An American tourist and his twin sister become enmeshed in" a mass of intrigue which centres around the loss of, and attempts to regain, a valuable jewel. "Tlife Mystery of the House of Commons," by Fielding Hope (Selwyn and Blouht), is what the title implies. A" member of ;lie House is.murdered as a division is being taken, and this is followed by a second and a third murder. The crimes ai'e committed with the left hand in each case. A secret service man arrives from India, and is drawn into the affair, together with the girl with whom he falls in love. There emerges a sinister figure. At one period the story resembles that of Brain Stoker's "Dractila."