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SOME RECENT FICTION.

THREE NEW "AMERICANS." Rufui Gillmore's sensational' story, "The Mystery of the Sccond Shot 1 ' (Appleton and Co.; per Geo. Robertson and Co.), has.for its hero a smart young newspaper reporter, whose duty it is to investigate the very mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of a bank magnate, who is found dead in his own house on the evening of the day when nows of his financial ruin had leaked out to an astonished city. The secret is well kept, and it is not until tho last chapter but ono is reached that tho mystery is solved. A strongly romantic interest is introduced by the fact that the reporter hero is in lovo with tho sister of tho man who is accused of having murdered the financier. Tho story is not on a high plane of literary merit, but those who delight in' fiction of this kind are not usually exacting on that headland with its cleverly woven plot and vigorous, direct narrative Mr. Gillmore's novel is very readable. Some of the illustrations, which arc numerous, are so well drawn that the name of theiir designer might well have appeared on tlio title page.

Gouveraeur Morris, the author of "Tho Penalty" (Scribner's Sons; per George Robertson and Co.), lias hitherto written • novels much less sensational in tone than his latest story, and hero and there in "The Penalty one seems to discover signs that the author is hardly at homo in his new stylo. Those who would fain sup richly on . sensation should' certainly read" "The Penalty," which deals with tho extraordinary deedß of a middle-aged man, Blizzard by name, who, though he chooses to pose aB a beggar, is in reality very wealthy. As a boy, Blizzard has been tho victim of a young doctor's most Lamentable mistake, suffering the amputation of his logs ; _ whioh, had tho surgeon been less hurried and nervous, might have been saved. Soured by tho knowledgo of this fact, Blizzard grows up to become an enemy to society, the employer of a vast gang of desperate criminals, and a confirmed Anarchist. Also, ho.v.ows lifelong vengeanoo against tho whose mistako has blighted his life. But the surgeon's daughter is a sculptor of great talent, and, employing Blizzard as a model —for a head of Satan!—exhibits such _ womanly tenderness and sympathy with the cripple that ho conceivosa violent, lovo ■ for her. "An operation, to be performed by the girl's father, to whom Blizzard has now mado himself; known, is .planned, by which two human legs will be grafted on to the poor-wretch's stumps. The-cripple plans a hideous way of "removing" tho young Nenv Yorker . with whom the sculptor is in love, but fortunately it is thwarted', and the removal of a splinter of bone proves that the man has not been, naturally, ail evil-minded person at all. The whole story is wildly improbable, but is relieved from being a failure by the grace and charm of the heroine. Howard Chandler Christy illustrates tho story_ in his well-known stylo. He is certainly Gibson's most formidable rival in the art of drawing a pretty girl..

Richard Chester, the principal figure in Wyndham Martin's light but amusing story, "All the World to Nothing" (Little, Brown', and Co.; per George Robertson and Co.), is a clover and handsome young New Yorker of good family and social position, who, howevor, squanders his fortune, and finally goes a "mucker" over a little, or rather I should say a big, game at poker. Practically a bankrupt, ho determines to go to a 'monoy-lencier, .who, ho finds, has cheated him,- and demand the ret/nrn of some money rightfully duo to him. Instead, however, of entering tin; Shylock's rooms, ho finds himself in a flat occupied by tho beautiful Nora Ellis, who, according to the will of an eccentric grand-parent, must , marry before midnight or forfeit 250,000 dollars (£50,000). Tho girl first charges the'intrudar with intended burglary, and then forcos him to marry her, believing sho can readily divorce him. Chester, with whom it is a case of lovo at first sight, agreoa to tho conditions, a convenient parson is unearthed, tho ccromony takes placo, and tho - nowly-mado 'bridegroom doparts. Now begins a long series of misadventures and sordid experiences for the penniless ex-clubman, who tries one occupation after another, but only succeeds in avoiding actual starvation. A second time, however, he is thrown into tho company of the girl, and, as on tho first occasion he had been disguised, the novolist asks us to accept tho fact that the lady does not recogniso him. In his second character, Chester becomes yet moro passionately in lovo with his wife, who is wife only in name, and on her side there is an equally strong awakening of tho tender sentiment. How Choster succecds in winning Nora "off his own bat," as it were, how ho outwits tho mean and unscrupulous designs of a Sival, a Wall Street magnate, how ho is left another largo fortune, and how the forced marriage becomes a real lovo match is told by Mr. Martin in a very entertaining manner.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19130913.2.93.3

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1854, 13 September 1913, Page 11

Word count
Tapeke kupu
851

SOME RECENT FICTION. Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1854, 13 September 1913, Page 11

SOME RECENT FICTION. Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1854, 13 September 1913, Page 11

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