EXCITEMENT SHELF

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 781, 9 July 1954, Page 14

EXCITEMENT SHELF

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY, by Helen McCloy; Victor Gollancz, English price 9 6. BROUGHT TO LIGHT, by E. R. Punshon; Victor Gollancz, English price 10/6. BEWARE OF THE DOG, by John Varnam; Hodder and Stoughton, English price 10 6. THE MAN FROM THE TURKISH SLAVE, by Victor Canning; Hodder and Stoughton, English price 10/6. LIVE AND LET DIE, by rye hag Jonathan Cape, English price 10/ }{ ELEN first two books led us to expect much. For two reasons there will be some disappointment with the third, The One That Got Away, a tale of a visit by a young American intelligence officer to the deep, Scottish Highlands. There is too much psychiatric talk, and the explanation of the tense mystery is quite incredible. On the other hand, the writing is the best Miss McCloy has done. In the move from the sophisticated city life of America to the lonely historyhaunted glens and moors of Scotland, her style has gained in strength and beauty. Her evocation of scene stirs mind and heart, and most of her characters, from peer to peasant, are impressive. In a fit of remorse, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, painter and poet, buried the | manuscript of his poems in his wife’s coffin, but some years later recovered them for publication. Does a_ fictional grave in a remote country churchyard in England hold a similar treasure; and, if so, should it be opened? These ques- | tions spin the plot of Brought to Life, | another appearance for Scotland Yard’s | Bobby Owen. Two murder mysteries | have to be solved, an unusual by-pro- | duct of poetry. This is E. R. Punshon | at about his best. ) The murdered man in Beware of the _ Dog-a _ particularily nasty piece of | moral corruption-has as many visitors | in the fatal past-midnight hour as a | business executive. I find this, and the | dénouement involving one of the pleasantest characters, hard to swallow, but | John Varnam’s is a lively, well-written story above the average. And, as a doglover, I must not forget the retriever. To be thrown overboard in the wide Atlantic at the beginning of a_ story cannot be fatal to its hero. This one, who was serving in the ship to uncover a smuggling gang, reaches a Brazilian island which proves to be a link in the chain, and finds life on land equally hazardous, with romance, however, fur

compensation. I would rank The Man from the Turkish Slave rather below others of Victor Canning’s I have read, but the. picture of simple life in this remote spot, ruled by an agreeable Brazilian eccentric from Oxford and the Sorbonne, is well done. West Indian buried treasure gives the impulse to Live and Let Die: English secret service agent plus F.B.1. pitted against a monstrous Negro Napoleon of crime in Harlem; stupid recklessness of Englishman; beautiful victim for him to love; killings, and sadism which culminates in towing live victims through | shark and barracuda infested waters; and for background, bestialities of Voodoo worship. Exciting, yes, but — "Is your journey necessary?" Ian Fleming writes too well to spend himself on such

stuff.

A.

M.