SOME RECENT FICTION

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2976, 13 January 1917, Page 13

SOME RECENT FICTION

" "Jim and Wally" (Ward, Lock, and 0 Co., per Whitcombe and Tombs). J As a rule, Mrs. Mary Grant Bruce's j stories, about young folks for young folks, have had a purely Australian background. In her latest effort, "Jim and Wally," the principal scenes J are laid in Ireland. Jim and Wally, two young Australians, eighteen and ' ninetaon respectively, aro fighting for _ King and country on tho Western front, and "somowhero in Elandors" aro "gassed" by the Huns, and taken to k England. Whon convalescent tliey are 1 taken by their father to Donegal, bis mother's country, and settle down in s a little seaside ■ village. Here they [j continue to do their "hit," for, with a the assistanco of a kindly baronet (in- _ capacitated for service at tho front), 0 they are successful in discovering a |j secret store of petrol, deposited, in a 0 envo in the cliffs liv some Germans, t who, eventually, after a lough fight, 0 are cantured. but not unfortunately until the gallant Sir John Neil lias g been I'atallv wounded. Tho story coos _ with a swing throughout, and ' Mrs. Bruce seems just as much at home in e describing Irish scenery as that of 0 Australia. ' Dashing Dick's Daughter, by E. Tfiver- / ett-Greeu (Stanley, Paul and 1 Co.), t has for its heroino the orphaned' r daughter of a- gay and thoughtless gambler, who, dying in a littlo Con- " tinental town, confides his daughter e to the care of his old friend, Sir Cecil il Rainsham, although tho latter liad t been jilted' by the dead man's wile. [- Tho baronet at first considers that his n pretty young charge, Sally, would d makn an excellent wife for a young r relative, but tile young lady, although I; consenting to an engagement, does not i- love tho young man, , having a secret t affeetion for her middle-aged guardian. A German spy turns up ; and is the s indirect means of upsetting this pios posed marriage, _ the charming Sally o eventually becoming Lady Rainsham. il Some wonderful does play :i promint out part in the detection and slaying '- of the German so.v, but they are just o a trifle too wonderful to bo accopted t as realities. Save for an occasional r> trace of "eush," tho love story of (. "Saint Cecil" and! Ins pretty ward is r,, well told,

"Tho Tomb of TS'IN," by Edgar Wallace (Ward, Lock, and Co., per Whitcombo and Tombs). The hero of Mr. Wallace's highly sensational but very readable story of a hidden Chinese treasure is an ex-sea captain, and adventurer in many lands, P named Tatham, who, in his own way, is as resourceful and daring a follow j. as was-Mr. Wallace's earlier hero, San- y dors of tho Rivor. Aided by a Sherlock Holmos-liko being, a super-detective, of Italian extraction, tho gallant cap- a tain outwits a small army of Chinese political conspirators, and succccds in * oarrying off an immense treasure from £ tho tomb of the first Emperor of the Chinese. Incidentally he secures a very a chsrming brido (not a Chinese ladv), and after so many breathless advon- r tures,. escapes and settles down to on- s joy a quiet domestic lifo at Surbiton, that most sedato and eminently respectable of London suburbs. Mr. Wallace s is most generous in his supply of sen- v sations, and despite its many and manifest improbabilities, this yarn is docidedly readable. j"Sons of ißCarlot," by Lindsay Russell * (Ward, I/ock, and Co.; per Whit- ' combe and Tombs). Miss (or Mrs?) Lindsay Russell is an Australian writer who is hy this time a, well-practised story-teller, and when she can free herself of sectarian pre- 0 judices can give us a well-told, wholesome, and, very readable novel. In "Sons of Iscariot," however, she returns to the theme of moro than one of her earlier stories, the doctrines and methods of the Roman Catholio Church, and paints tho various priests whose machinations play so prominent a part in tho story in the blackest of colours. For tliose who like this sort of story it is precisely the sort of story they will like, but my own opinion is that sectarian views and prejudices aro better left to the pamphhleteers, and should not be given a fictional setting. I