Stories dealing with the activities ota "master-criminal" are usually marred by the fact that either he made 50 fiendishly clever, or his pursuers so stupid, that he fe always Stools ahead of them and at" the conclusion is found' nonchalantly thumbing his nose at the discomfited forees of law and order. "House of Intrigue" by Colin Robertson (Ward Lock, London, 8/0) 1s different, for the author has cleverly balanced his jes", thus making) a book that holds the interest "of the readers until the end. His "master-mind, Stohtwehner, is well served. by his satellites, of "varying degrees of villainy, and he finds a worthy opponent in Chief Inspector Martin ana his colleagues na, "Not My Bread Alone" by Maic Clements "Hutchinson, London. 7/6)
the Lfe-story of a Russian Jew, from his penurious youth in exile in Australia to his millionaire maturity in London. Along with his material career goes the gloomy record of his abandonment of his religion and the Gismal mess he makes of his private life, Malo Clements would do belter with Jess. zeal. Even in one's ra novel there is no need to table about fa musician "lavishing his ghe of sound," or to say, when a man fods depressed, "the thought pressed down upon his heart with the cold lammy Angers of fear." As a. psychological study and the statement of a prolem the book is sound and interest Ing, enjoyable if one can stomach the' cloying richness of the style—
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.