The Washington herald., 1921-03-12
THE UNDERWOOD MYSTERY. by
Charles J. Dutton. (Dodd, Mead
and Company.)
REVIEWS

| u ooD DN
Charles J. Dutton. (Dodd, Mead
and Company
! No time is wasted by this author.
The plot begins to thicken on line
five of page one. Thereafter things
get thicker and thicker until it ap-
pears that all the possible solutions
have been proved impossible. There
is a solution, of course. and IL is a
surprising one, though to US it did
not seem to be particularly in
genuous. A very famous and scholar
Ily detective named BARLEY and his
DR.. Watson, whose real name (poor
deviD is Pelt. are engaged to solve
1.-THE mystery of the murder of John
Underwood. a very wealthy man. Mr..
Underwood is found dead in his
library, the doors and windows of
which are all locked from the in
side. The suicide theory has to be
abandoned because the pistol with
which the magnate was shot is not
to be found. and furthermore, there
is no motive for suicide. Under
woods son. his secretary, his wife,
and a friend of his wife, are all al
one time or another, apparently
guilty of the crime. Then to COM
plicate matters the author intro
duces robbery and assault and black
mail which quite effectively keep the
reader with Pelt and the local Of
fcers of the law of the right trail
It's a good story but unfortunately
rather carelessly written. Even in
an atmosphere of violence there's no
good reason for including the Eng
lish language among the victims.
MODERN CONSTITUTIONAL DE-
yELOPMENT IN CHINA, BY
Harold NJ. Vinacke. princeton
University Press.)
This book covers period OF
| twenty years and gives a clear and
| interesting account of Chinese poll
tics from the Boxer days to the as
tendency of the Tuchuns. Professor
Vinacke is concerned almost exclu-
| sively with internal affairs, avoid
ing as far as possible the subject OF
China's foreign relations and say
ing but little regarding the infiu-
ence of foreign ideas upon the Chi
| nese constitution. The author is
| optimistic as to the future of China,
a feeling which he justifies by the
rapid growth of natiopal feeling
4 during the period covered by his
study.
The first novel in the Bobbs-Mer-
| rill spring list is by Evelyn Van
| Buren, and is entitled 'Zizi's Ca
reer. Miss Van Buren's former
novel. "Pippin," published several
years ago, is now being made ready
for the stage under contract with
a New York producer.
A recent review in Modern Lam
guage Notes" makes To- following
comment concerning the Yale
Shakespeare: For those teachers
who desire a good standard tex
of Shakespeare, attractively print
ed, edited with scrupulous scholar
ship, and free from the usual incu-
bus of too elaborate introductions
and notes, this undertaking of the
Yale Press will prove welcome"
terfsm," considers THE Third Win.
Rose Macauley. author of Pot.
dow" by Anne Douglas Sedgwick
one of the very finest of modern
novels. ''To meet. she says. "such
a novel as The Third Window
among the general welter of inco,
herent impressionism and formless.
ness wherein much of our better
fiction blindly and vaguely sprout,
is like stepping out of a bog on tc
dry and sharply formed rock"
Kate Jordan, author of 'The Next
Corner" is a native of Dublin. Ire
land, who came to this country ir
childhood, and had her first stor,
| published at the age of 12. Hel
previous books include Against tn,
Winds" The Creeping Tides" ant
Time the Comedian"
A plumber Of reviewers of Isabl,
| lOstrdnder's latest mystery story
How Many Cards" (McBride), hav,