BOOK NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 182, 3 July 1937, Page 7

BOOK NOTES

A HORLER NOVEL. Mr Sydney Horler requires no introduction to readers of crime novels. No devotee of the new school of highly scientific, closely reasoning writers of detective stories, this author relies, in his latest novel, as ho has done in most of his earlier hooks, on excitement of the more sensational variety; ho is of tho romantic wing, rather than the realistic, in the great and growing hodv of crime writers. In this book, “They Called Him Nighthawk,” ho introduces a personage known to police and jiublic as Nighthawk. The name is the most sinister thing about this gentleman, for, although his activities are criminal, Nighthawk is really a twentieth century Robin Hood. His victims are only those whoso vicious propensities make his plundering them acts of justice rather than acts ot crime, and, furthermore, far from profiting himself by his nocturnal activities, every penny lie “collects” goes to enrich some worthy charity. Romantic gentlemen of the Nighthawk variety arc not new to fiction, hut Mr Horler succeeds in making a fairly entertaining story out of the adventures of his hero. True, the identity of the mysterious criminal will not puzzle tho average reader lor long, hut that is unimportant in a novel ot this type.

“SIX DAYS’ GRACE.” In “Six Days’ Grace,” Mr V. R. Burnett has drawn a convincing portrait of an American politician, a Liberal, standing for re-election as State Governor. Tho time is one of crisis; tho forces of reaction and radicalism are clashing; Read Cole, the Gm ernor, is faced with defeat unless he can win for himself the powerful farmer vote. The means by which he wins that vote, incidentally calling down upon himself the hatred of most of Ins former admirers, supplies the strong political drama of the story. But the author has not been content to show his principal character only under the stress of these trying circumstances. In this novel he deals' not only with Read Cole’s political crisis, ; but also with the highly charged personal drama which is going on during the six crucial days in which State, indeed American, history is being made. He flings wide the curtains which usually hide the privato life of a public figure who exists, for the majority, in a purely official capacity—and exposes to view the thoughts, hopes, disappointments, strength, and weaknesses of such a man when free to lay aside the mask which must bo assumed for conferences, interviews, and speeches. Mr Burnett writes with all the vigour one has come to associate with the average American novelist of to-day. He has the abliity to tell a story convincingly and entertainingly.

“STUBBS AT FIFTY.” Previous novels by Mr Guy Pocock have gained him a circle of admirers, who will welcome with pleasure this latest book from his pen. “Stubbs at Fifty” will not disappoint them; it has qualities of charm, humour, and pleasant satire, which will satisfy the most exigent of those who already know Mr Pocock’s work, and which will, in addition, win him many new admirers. Stubbs is a schoolmaster whose unorthodox opinions cause his headmaster to ask for his resignation. Rather unhappily, Stubbs obliges, and, being fortunate enough to have ample private means, retires to London to live the life of a leader of the “Advanced Thought” brigade. Unfortunately, the views which at school were a vivid red, in Chelsea prove to be only a washedout pink. In his efforts to make a place lor himself among tho strange young people to whom his niece introduces him, Stubbs tries many flainbuoyant measures, only to realise, at fifty, that the ideas and ideals ot his violent juniors are not lor him. He finds, however, his own means of salvation. The author has dealt faithfully with his central character, making him a very likeable, at times pathetic, figure. Even when Stubbs is at his most absurd on- understands and sympathises with him. For the rest, Mr Pocock satirises ■beautifully the more exotic manifestations of advanced modern thought. I Every big city has little groups similar to those lie describes so entertainingly, hut in focal centres, like London, they flourish much more easily than they do in more outlying parts. HATRED AND WAR. War in its effect on those who remain at home is the theme of Mr Stirling North’s new noval, “Night Outlasts the Whippoorwill”—the futility and false values of war his moral. The action of this story takes place in Brailsford Junction, a small American village with a population largely made up ot Germans; honest, God-fearing, pleasant folk who live there at peace until America’s entry into the war lets loose against them a flood of hatred and injustice. In drawing this picture ot tho effect upon innocent people ot a war being waged thousands of miles away, Mr North has not confined himself to tho alien members of this small eommunitv. He describes the suffering undergone by Early Anne Brailsford, whose voung husband, Peter, has gone away to fight; he writes, somewhat bitterly, of the ugliness and meanness shown by those small-minded people who, non-combatants themselves, arc more merciless than the men m the trenches. . . , ~ , The final picture in this novel—that of blustering, grasping, unpleasant Major Ellingworth and his wife, bereft lot evervthing which they counted worth I while—-might he taken as symbolic ot •the author’s views on war; a struggle .loosing the forces of hate and destriicition and achieving nothing hut disillusionment and sorrow. Night uutllasts the Whippoorwill” is a very competently written novel, strong in story interest, and with an idea behind it loi those who want something more than entertainment.