BOOK NOTICES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 August 1939, Page 3

BOOK NOTICES

“DEATH WALKS IN EASTREPPS." A place well up in the scale of “thrillers” must be accorded to “Death Walks in Eastrepps,” by that wellknown and popular writer, Francis Deeding. The story is that of a series of murders in an English east coast watering-place. The crimes baffle the local police, leading to Scotland Yard being called in, but a noted member of the staff of the Criminal Investigation Department also fails to pentrate the mystery, follows a false trail and eventually is constrained to admit that he has arrested the wrong man. For a time the affair is thrown back into the hands of the Eastrepps police, reinforced by a volunteer muster of members of the local population to undertake night patrol duties. At this stage the talented Sergeant Ruddock has an opportunity of outclassing his rather wooden-headed superior officer and turns the opportunity most enterprisingly to account. Before long an alleged murderer is caught, tried and hanged and Sergeant Ruddock is promoted and transferred to Scotland Yard. That is by no means the end, however, The mystery even then remains to be elucidated in a climax as unexpected as it is dramatic. Mr. Beeding is to be credited with a masterly handling of a most readable story of crime and detection. While the interest of the central theme is maintained in a manner to grip the attention of the reader throughput, the story is excellent also in its well-pic-tured setting and local colour and' in its interesting detail. Mr. Beeding’s characters, too, are living human beings and not lay figures. The element of horror which enters into the story of strange and tragic complications is not laboured or overdone. “Death Walks in Eastrepps” may be recommended heartily to all who like a well constructed and well written detective story. “MOTHER OF THE BRIDE.” Lovers of good fiction will be pleased to learn that a cheap edition of Alice Grant Rosman’s “Mother of Ihe Bride” has been issued by Messrs. Hodder & Stoughton, of London, thus bringing within the reach of all a novel which has had a wide circulation in England and America. It is a story of home life, chiefly dealing with domestic events just before and after a wedding, the drifting apart of the father and mother of the bride and their ultimate reconciliation. It is a charming tale, with wit and pathos effectively blended. There is a deep human touch in the story and the whole is rounded off in a manner which will be appreciated by the reader. There is a very life-like character in the book in Mrs .Moreland, a woman of no mental attainments, who possesses so much energy that she is for ever arranging everybody’s business, even to advising those chiefly concerned how to conduct the many matters associated with the wedding. The characters of the mother and father of the bride are particularly well drawn. Altogether, the book is one which holds the interest of the reader throughout. The above books, copies of which have been received from Mr. W. S. Smart, Sydney agent for Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton, may be obtained from all booksellers.