Hilaire Belloc's burlesque on the crime story, is included in the new Penguin Books, all at sixpence, The thirty-seven illustrations were made by G. K. Chesterton's charming pencil: The straight detective stories are "Death of My Aunt" by C. H. B. Kitchen and "Murder in the Maze" by J. J. Connington. Short stories are represented by "Selected Short Stories of 'Saki' novels by Norman Collins' "Penang Appointment" and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's "Night Fight," which gained for the author the Prix Femina de Paris while he was still tian ai line pilot—one of a team of pioneers who built the Air France line from Europe to South America, The two books of memoirs are "Confessions of a Young Man" by George Moore and "Am Innkeeper's in which John Fothergill, stated to have brought the art of modern inn keeping to perfection, tells much of the story of his own life. This is his book's fourth edition.
In "The Egypt's Gold" Mr, David Scott, who through five successive Seasons was the only journalist who saw. the salvage men at work from end, tells the story of New Fiction Mr. Robert Eton specializes in small towns and "The Legacy" (Nicholson & Watson, London. 7/6) tells of" the terrible divisions caused in Woolford by £20,000 left for its betone, later the textatrix) with a leading-seaman in Torquay. Unfortunately the lady is lost sight of after this meeting for some time while the anchor introduces the other inhabitants of Woolford, and when once more she comes into the picture she is drowning her conscience in stout to the pleasures of which she was introduced by the leading-seaman in the course of a very correct evening ending at the "Admiral Benbow." Mr. Eton's interest in committee meetings held to discuss the spending of the legacy rather militates against the brightness of the book—for even Lady Seesley's selfish reasons for preferring a public recreation ground do not quite balance the seriousness of the rector and a public-spirited doctor. But on the whole the story 1s amusing and the end surprising One outstanding feature which has characterized the work of Mr. Ottwell Binfis is the amazing versatility which he has displayed in all his novels to date. As an author he has the of being able to turn himself to a variety of types of story and bring to each a freshness that is delightful, with the result that he may always be relied on to provide a thoroughly enjoyable yarn, In "A Man of Dartmoor" (Ward Lock. London. 3/6) Mr. Binns has added yet another absorbing tale to his already long list of successes in the literary field and once again hes demonstrated that, whatever the subject of the story may be or wherever the locale is situated. he can provide an authentic picture in which his characters play their parts. In this story of a Dartmoor farmer and his scapegrace brother, whom he forgave almost literally until seventy times seven, the author has caught the atmosphere of the great moor and the spirit of its peopl, while the drama n which the story culminates is one at fine intensity. Passions good and evil and the tenderness of a great love combine to hold the reader with compelling power. It is a simple story of simple people ¢rom the beautiful county of Devon and its author has painted a true picture of life it this secluded corner of a troubled world, "A Man of Dartmoor" leaves a pleasant taste in the reader's mouth Even at the best of times when slipping anë sliding across u rocky foreshore in the pursuit of harmless amusement it is far from pleasant to stumble across a corpse, and when such a body has a dent in the back of its head as big as a fair-sized apple the discovery is apt to become more disconcerting than ever. Yet such a find is made early one fine morning in Miss Mary Fitt's "Death at Dancing Stones" (Nicholson Watsof, London. 7/6) and Superintendent Mallett of the local police soon realizes he has something more thaw an ordinary criminal to seek. This Mallett is an agreeable character whose rough and ready humour always appears to extract from his many listeners just what he wants of them and nothing more. He knows how to talk like a father to a wayward young miss and then a few pages later is able to make a healthy young giant tremble in his shoes by sheer force of personality. Oh, yes!—he is good! Indeed were it not for the portly Super this yarn~ would suffer tly, for despite the laudatory notices appearing on the dust over Miss Fitt's reasoning and argunents as she proceeds in her story ire at times pretty thin and inclined to be puerile. She takes a little tov long to get into top-speed with the result that her first hundred pages ire lacking, apart from Mallett, in the power to hold the reader's tion. Thereafter the writer takes tu her heels and action is the keynote. Mallett narrows down the circle of suspects to reasonable limits and re-endlessly following clue after clue is Inally able to name the criminal thanks to a piece of really sound judgment. But he is cheated of his prey in the end and an unexpected telephone call from the assassin tells him those few connecting links for which he has been searching for days. I can't say that this volume is a crackerjack in the world of crime fiction, but those who are acsustained to a slow start will probably find sufficient to keep them fully envertained for an afternoon or evening.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.