Evening star., 1925-04-26
Reviews Of Spring Books
Conan Doyle World Advenurer and Exp porer in Field
of Spiritualistic Research Revealed In His Own =
Volume of "reminiscences

mands general curiosity and interest.
And all the time, throughout these
years, there was the good adventure
of steady achievement in the writing
of fiction. Then. the recent period Of
exploration in. the field of spiritual
| istic research. All this you will read
in Memories and Adventures" a
"reminiscences whose plain and sober
manner appears. to be curiously at
odds with the really spectacular
| character of the adventures them
selves. This seeming odds" lies in
| the fact that Conan Doyle took these
| far Journeys, not as the fighter, but
as the surgeons and healer instead.
n f.
| An unforeseen effect of the creation
| of Sherlock Holmes was to let loose
| upon an unoffending world literally an
army OF imposters Rasquerading as
the original Sherlock. Not so much,
| either. calculated imposters, these.
Feeble limitations, rather, produced
without the painstaking work and sin.
cere effort that 50 clearly went into
! the substance of their model Prob
| ably, too, without the mental acumen,
the creative instinct, the dramatic
feeling that went into the making of
the original Holmes. One cannot in
| fairness hold Conan Doyle responsible
| for the deluge of generally maudlfn
| mystery tales against which readers
are trying to make headway. One
| can suggest, however, in behalf of
[ himself and thousands of fellow suf-
| ferers here. that these writer's study
| the subject thoroughly before ven
turing SO buoyantly upon the business
of making criminals and then discov
ering them. Many. have written in
| telligently on this theme. Poe has and
many another. Many have written
admirable stories of this kind. Poe
again, and Conan Doyle. himself, and
Dupin. And there is life itself-the
| best of all. Anything to get the
average detective fctionist out of the
obviously disordered purfeus of his
own mind and out Of his equally
obvious Discrimination for the hard
work involved in this branch of
| literary invention.
| THE MURDER CLUB. BY Howell
| Evans, author of "Crabtree House, :"
etc. New York: G.. p. Putnam's s
I Sons.
| gives to this story. or stories, a dis
| tinct touch of freshness. Something
! like 80 crimes are brought together
here and before them are set group
| of men who, in common, engage in the
| solution of the mystery attending
| each. The author has seen fit to rep
| resent The Murder Club" as made
up of responsible business men, and
! he has done this well enough to make
| each one carry through in the quail
! tiles chosen 10 At his special career.
| These men are banded together to
| help the authorities In following up
crimes. in apprehending criminals. in
! reducing lawlessness. The reader is
| let into the business along with the
| others. Indeed, he becomes member
| of the Murder Club, so to speak, par
4 taking in it's activities Of studying the
nature of a crime. of weighing the va
lidity of clues, of balancing evidence.
| of determining measures. And, all the
time, he is engaged in an interesting
series of events-in a good story. One
of the better sort, this. A story worth
| taking up for an hours entertain
nlent.
ANYTHING BUT THE TRUTH. BY
! Carolyn Wells. author Of The
Clue etc. Philadelphia: J. B.
| Lippincott Co.
The story itself provides long cor
ridor set for the last minute entrance
OF the familiar figure of Fleming
/ Stone. the inseparable friend of Caro-
! lyn Wells, author of the mystery tale.
| picks out the murderer of Austin Ell
| bridge, done to death at midday, sit
ting on his front porch not a dozen
feet away from the street. Despite
the open-work character of the deed,
its solution had been a long and
dreary business for the local sleuths,
who would have made hardly any
headway at all but for the zeal and
good sense of Peter Thorne. a young
| ,yicif in hn ets,
over it's murder problem. Indeed,
Peter Thorne turns out to be the sole
person of any considerable interest
to the reader. as he obviously was
| with the author herself, since upon
him has she expended her best ef-
fort. The other characters are negli-
gible. The heroine is a limp thing.
| Her lover Is afraid of his mother. So,
no wonder that Peter Thorne comes
| in for the lions share of attention,
both from Miss Wells and the reader,
too. Peter Thorne is a likable fell
Iowa winning. friendly, modest
chap, on his way to somewhere else
when the excitement of the little viii
lage held him to a longer sojourn
there, just to be of help-if he could
be. since he was, really, a pretty
good amateur detective. The prime
essential of every story of this kind
the ultimate moment OF surprises
held in good hand here and does come
as bit of surprise and an instinct
toward denial despite the authority
of Fleming Stones word about the
matter.
THE SEVEN SLEEPERS.. BY Fran.
els Beeding. Boston: Little, Brown
& Co..
For the moment Geneva looks like
one of the best places in the world
for the Matching of an international
conspiracy. Add to the financial side
of this enterprise seven sleeping part.
ners of fabulous resource for the
speeding up of the incubation. In the
midst set. a harmless young man who,
more or less bemused over his desire
TO find an old friend, beautiful lady,
becomes exactly the instrument de.
sired to further the plot as innocent.
ly as if a baby were carrying it for.
ward. Not so innocent as he looks
/