SOME RECENT FICTION

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 62, 6 December 1919, Page 17

SOME RECENT FICTION

Yet Anothor Ghambsrs. Mr. R. W. Chambers must snreiy produce, his novels as the lato Mr. Guy Boolhby 'was credited with having done during the later stupes 'of his literary career, namely, dictate his stories into a phonograph, devoting. the morning to onn novel, the afternoon to another, and correcting the joint production of phonograph and typist in the evening. Prolific is quite an inadequate adjective to apply to Mr. Chambers, for a new novel from his pen appears on my study table at lee.st every three months or so. And all things considered, although these Chambers stories-ore avowedly reisational, mingling the ultra-melodramatic with tho ultra-scnttmenhl. they display the quality of very skilful constructioi. Mr. ] Ch'ambers is a Ih>m utory-teller, and. 1 after all," it is the storv that, counts, ijjs Ifltcst—his very latest-effort is "The Laughing Girl" (N.Y.:. Anplcton and Co., pr-r Whit"ombe and Toims).. The 'scene is laid in Switzerland, whither troc a vnnng. Now Yorker, Chilian T-v birth, Irish 'by ancestry, a jolly, devil-me-care. and, of course, very handsome young fellow, to fake possession of a famous tourist hotel he has inherited. ITeTe he meets Thusla, tho mysterious "Laiishinjr Girl"; hero, nl«o; ,eonu< equally mysterious male strangers. One strongly r'semUes fx-King 'fino of Greece; another, Kin? Frrdinnt'd of &>!- irnria; in others, livnn identifies wellknown German diplomat*. l-Vfhv/il'i the voung -American is nlmiged into a whirlpool of political inirigue and romance. Tlun villains, jolly Americnn girls and young men, mid a crowd of mysterious cosmopolitans all take part in a medley of sonsntional and romantic hannenings, and for a time tho general plon i<? so entangled that the render may well excused a little bewilderment as to what tho outcome will be. That thn finale is such as will satisfy the. most sentimentally inclined' of renders iroe.s, however, without saving. 'Upon tho traditional "hapnv ending" one on always rely in n Chambers novel. "The Toughing Girl" should greatly dolight Mr. Chambers's 1 spepial public.

A Brace of "Australians." At this soason of the year Miss Ethel Turner (Mrs. Cnrlewis) usually gives us a now story. So, too, does another deservedly popular Australian lady writer, Mrs. Mary Grant Bruce. Two new books on my table this week testify to tho fact that both ladies have been agreeably busy during the year which is fast drawing to its closo. In "Ilrigid and tho Cub" (Ward Lock, and Co.; per Whitcombo and Tombs), Mrs. Curlewis shows that the hand which gave us "The Seven Little Australians" aDd its many successors has lost none of ita cunning. Our old friends, tho pleasant young Australians who figured in "Tho Cub" and "Captain Cub," are again introduced. Brigid goes to Paris as a war worker, taking charge of refugeo and orphaned children, and tho Cub, after some strenuous experiences at Gallipoli, is on the Western front. Mrs. Curlewis takes her charactei'3 to London as well as Pans, and her sketches of wartime life in the two capitals, as seen through the bright young eyes of Brigid and her friends, are always, fresh and picturesque. A gallant voung airman causes the Cub some serious anxiety for a time, but in the final scene on a Devonshire tor—on Victory Day l —Brigid listens at last to the true dictates of her heart, and the friend ot her youth is made liappy. A very wholesome, very readable story. Mrs. Mary Grant Bruce, in her new story, "Captain Jim" (Ward, Lock, and Co.; per Whitcombo and Tombs), also brings on tho stage onco more some old friends, the Jim, Wally, and .Nora whom we first know at far-away Billabong, but who now meet again in tugland. To Norah has been left, by her kind old friend Sir John M'Neill (killed. on the Irish coast whilst destroyin" a German submarine), a beautiful 013 mansion in Surrey. The Australian girl and her jolly old father determine lo utilise the house a.? a "Homo for iiral People" and fill it with more or less deserving folk who have suffered nervous strain by the war. Mrs. Brace gets some excellent comedy out of Borahs, housekeeping, her rather trying English servants, anil so forth, and m her descriptions of a family of small youngsters whom she specially .befriends, shows a clever insight into juvemlo psychology. Jim and Wally, both invalided home are on the scene for a while, and then'return to France. Both perform valorous deeds. Jim is taken prisoner, but nukes a clever, escape, and Wally also turns up safe and sound for Hio Christmas festivities. Of fun, fighting, and pleasant love-making Mrs. Bruce gives us. a; very generous supply.

"The Cactus Hedge." "The Cactus Heogo," by Cecil Adair (Slanlev Paul ami Co.), is a pleasantlytold storv of life in an out-of-the-way Breton village. -The lord of the manor, M do Broc. has timmolled with Ins sou because of the hitler's marriage to a beautiful woman, wjo is, however, deem(>d liv the old aristocrat to be grievously liis son's social inferior. lhe rise and development of a family mystery, complicated, in (some degree, by , the introduction of a secret, society's plots, is skilfully done, ana' there is a very pretty love story, which ends in a tinv uraudson becoming tho chief agent in a family reconciliation. Yvonne lianibcrt. the heroine of the story, is ;i uowerfullv-drawn and convincing figure anil when the final chapter is reached nn render of the story will grudge her the long-deferred happiness which 'I'nnv de Broc brings her. It seams churlish to nick holes in what is a very nrettv and truly romantic story, but exception must be taken to'the author's, at times, ciuifo exasperating trick of giving purely literal translations of French expressions'. A French story mav be written in English, but its sentences ' should not, be given in purely "French .construction. When "Cecil Adair" makes one of his characters cry, "But. say it then to me, I pray you," or "I have hao. of that enough," he, or 6he. is not writing English, but merely civinu a bald translation of French expression. "Tho Cactus Hedge" is nono the less a very charming story.

Shorter Notices. "Countess Gl.ika and Oilier Stories," by Warwick Deeping (Cnssoll and Co., per S. mid W.. Jfackay). A collection ot five separate and complete stories by the author ot "Tho Ited Saint," and many other-excellent novels. Two of tho stories, by far the best, deal with Italian subjects, tho period 'being that of Garibaldi's cnnipaidiis for a freo ami united Jtalv. In the title story, the mew- is laid on tho Kiviera. a hamlfomo young Englishman, a beautiful Slu-v lady, and a conceited, brutal, and mest insufferable Gorman princelet (tho villain of the piece) being the principal figures in «n agreeable mixture of drama and comedy. The final story, "Bitter Silence," lias for its motif a now woll-wom theme, the misunderstanding by his. lady love of a brave man's failure to "join up" when the war broke out. "Billy Sf'Cov,". by Christopher Culley (C'assoli and Co.; per S. and A vigorously written yarn, narrating the adventures of a young Englishman who takes up a cattle ranch in a Western American State on the 'Mexican frontier, and comes into conflict with a gang of rascally cattle thieves, bandits, and. assesses, of mixed Mexican and American composition.. The gang holds, the whole countryside in'a state of terrorism, but is finally broken up by a smart young cowbov, tho nominal hero of the story, who, at first a rival of the Englishman for the lovo of the beautiful Winnie A'bner, chivalronslv stands by him in his hour .of peril, and having secretly gained tho appointment of "deputysheriff" rids the district of its nes.t of outlaws. A ranch better written story than are most novels of this kind, and, po the author assure; us in his preface, including several incidents which are founded on actual ha-npeniiißS. In "Cap'n Jonah's Fortune: A Story of Caps Cod" (NX: George Sully Co.. per Whitcomb? and Tombs). Mr. James A. Owner challenges comparisons with Hint long practised delineator of the quaint Down Kast iisher folk and their life. Mr. Joseph Lincoln, whose latest story. "Shavings," was reviewed in these columns a fortnight.or so ago. The chief figure in Mr. Cooper's story is a genial, goodhearted, but, in worldly affairs, very naif, retired mariner, Cap'n Jonah, who. conies to tho Shell ltoad village to make, his home with some relatives ho has not. seen, for many yean;, believing him, at first, to be a man-of fortune, his sister-in-law and her relatives cordially welcome him, but when he is discovered to lie- in reality verv poor, behave towards him with almost incredible meanness. Tho retired ."kipper finds, however, n a true friend in a talkative old storekeeper, also a • retired salt. Cap n Abe and a pretty, warm-hearted niece also consoles him. In tho long run some half-forgotten oil shares turn 'up trumps, and tho Cap'n becomes once again a person of importance. A couple of love stories run alternately with tho narrative of the captain's financial ups-and-downs, and the minor characters are. well drawn. Tho quaint, humour and hoinclv philosophy of the two old skippers largely contribute to the success of the story. „, „ , "Tho Golf Course Mystery," by Chester K. Steele (N.Y.: George Sully and Co., per Whitcombe and Tombs), a highly w;cit.in;r American "detective," which bo"ius with tho sudden death (by poison) of a golf pbver. Tim mystery of Mr. fat-well's awfully sudden end on the golf ci.urso of the Mariposa Club is investigated by a gentleman detective, Colonel Ashlcv, who combines, a. passion for playing V.ie part of an amateur Lecocq or Sherlock Holmes with a devotion to angling. The story is one of many surprises, suspicion attaching for a time to two vouug men. Harry liartlelt and Cautain'"Gerry" Poland, who are rivals for the hand of the murdered man's daughter. Tho day comes, 100, when the circumstantial evidence seems to point to the daughter herself having been the assassin. Tho denouement, disguised wrth more than usual skill, is most exciting, tho real murderer turning up in a nnito unexpected quarter. Lovers of detective fiction should vastly enjoy ' I no Golf Course Mystery."