BOOK NOTES.

Hutt News, Volume 1, Issue 17, 20 September 1928, Page 2

BOOK NOTES.

(By "Observer."

A new book by Peter B. Kyne is always sure of a hearty welcome. Admirers of tliis popular writer will find plenty of incident in "The Tide of Empire," which Hodder and Stoughton have just published. The creator of Cappy 'Ricks' gives us another superb story, this time a romance of early California, which includes a glowing, thorougldy realistic picture of the famous gold rush of '49. Dermod D 'Arey, adventurous and Irish, Josepho Guerrero, a Spanish senorita, and Pathfinder, the thoroughbred, figure chiefly in this tide of the lawless, perilous existence in the gold canips and of the courage brought by a man to a love always in danger. Kyne's vast and enthusiastic public makes any mention of his genius seem superfluous. However, so well has he caught the flavour of the West when it was untamed, and the spirit of the men who tamed it, that the "Tide of Empire" will long be talked of as '' Kyne's Masterpiece.''

The story of the flight of the Southern Gross across the Pacific is almost ready for publication. Squadron-Leader Kingsfor Smith and Lieutenant-Commander Ulm tell the story in their own inimitable way, and in view of the fact that both intrepid airmen have been so much in the public eye lately, the book should be assured of a very large sale. Not everyone can show their admiration for the heroism of these young men, who have so gallantly risked their lives and braved dangers in the cause of aviation, but the publication of this book opens the way for the general public to show its practical admiration by purchasing a copy of the book which is published at 8/6, surely not a considerable outlay when cognisance is taken of the fact that lack of finance was one of the chief obstacles which tile fliers had to overcome before they were able to jmt Australia and New Zealand on the flying map of the world.

Mr, A. A. Davies/ of Kings Boad, LiOwer Hutt, who represents the interests of Cassell and Co., Dymocks Book Arcade, Sydney, and Robertson and Mullens, Melbourne, had the good fortune to be staying at the United Service Hotel, Christchurch, when the Tasmen fliers arrived to put up at the same hotel. Mr. Davies was abie to secure a momento of

the historic flight in the form of an autographed menu card, which, needless to say, he very much values.

"Short Circuits" is the title of Stephen Leacock 's new book, which is equal m gay -humour and deft satire to any of the other books which this popular author has regaled the public which revels in the class of story that Leacock has made his own. It is full of rollicking clean humour and some indication of the : tips of humour may be gleaned from the following chapter headings:—"Speaking in India"; "How_to Borrow Money"; "A Lesson on the Links"; "With the Family at Football"; "Life in the Open"; "Easy Ways to Success"; "Fuh as an Aid to Business 7'; "Literary Sensations for 1929 "; < ' The Passing of the Back Yard; and so on. "Surrender," by J. C. Snaith. Two men—one English and one American— desert from the Foreign Legion. They escape into the African Desert. After years of terrible hardship and incredible adventure in places where no white man has trod, they reach Cairo, and thence return to the civilization of the West. In the course of their wandering each man comes to depend so much on the other that it appears in a liberal sense they can only muster one will between them. Each owes his life over and over again to the exercise of the other's will. The deep affection that exists between them passes the love of women. But a woman of great beauty and magnetic ■personality esters the life of both. She is already pledged to the one, but the other learns she is vital to his existence. Both are men of noble nature; one has high gifts, the other, great possessions. The problem of their future seems insoluable; and it finally involves an act of supreme self-sacrifice on the part of the one which the other is forced to accept.

In <<The Secret of Sheen" John Laurence tells the story of the mystery burglar who signed himself "Charity Sheen" in "the accounts of each of his enemies which he sent regularly, after their commission, to the police and the newspapers—that unknown thief who declared that he gave all Ms ill-gotten gains to charity, and who seemed linked from the first with the pleasant house-party at Rowlands which included Sir Richard Lulworth, and Avril Abbleway, daughter

of tlie head of Scotland Yard, who had vowed to catch Sheen. The author gradually elucidates the mystery with the skill of the born storyteller, in an enthralling yarn which combines a romantic love interest with scientific crime detection and many unexpected thrills.