Evening star., 1927-12-04
Continued from Fourth Page.)

0onunued from Fouftn PaGe.1
placed and unfair. SO it is here i'm
another Lincoln mystery tale of excit-
ing interest. M-
SINGING RIVER. BY Alice De Ford.
Boston: Little, Brown & Co.
ROMANCE and reality set up a
mutually useful partnership in
singing River" The New England
setting, admittedly sober IL not actual
. ly prosaic, takes on'a pleasing glamour
from it's softer associate. The romance
in turn gains in believability by way
of the good company that it has for
the time being elected to keep. The
Background lifelike and intimate,
bespeaks for the author intimacy.
affection, appreciation and the power
to portray with vividness and charm.
The love story is of the beautifully
magic sort that turns cold shoulder
on things as they are and goes blithely
along the way of things as they ought
ID &c, in the domain of love. A
modern young woman runs this story,
Incidentally showing the male persua-
sion roundabout how to conduct a big
stock farm as it should be, maintain.
ing meanwhile, to he sure, all the
charm of womanhood-aS the old
novelists used TO say. When the hero
appears he is a most unlikely youth
for so fine a role That is. he looks
as little like hero as any man would
who was roaming the countryside
looking for a job. But you never can
tell. not from appearances. He proves
to he exactly what the girl farmer
needs, acquitting hin\elf as the best
of first aids in real dilemma. than
as a capable manag ger, and then-well,
why tell the whole story, Actually
the youth finally turns out to be an
English lord, or it's equivalent in Eng
lish ranking orders. You see. just as
in an earlier day of novel writing
kindly fate has taken this love affair
In hand. However, a bit old-faShloned
Is it may seem. it is a we'll managed,
we'll constructed story, that gives an
agreeable change from the excess of
realism in novels through which
readers are urged to make way that
is dreary and uninviting. There is
here a clear storytelling power, with
its dependence upon structure, re-
straint in imagination. the gift of
situation and of word. An admirable
departure from the common run.
X X y x
TWENTIETH CENTURY CRIMES.
BY Frederick A. Mackenzie. Bos-
ton: Little. Brown & Co.
INTERESTED in the special prob
= lens that face poverty as such.
Frederick Mackenzie many years ago
went to live in the East End of Lon
don, perhaps the most fruitful field
that the world holds for first-hand
study of the abjectly poor. of the hope
lessly submerged. Out of this expert
ence Mr. MackenZie's mind turned
upon crime, eXemplified day and night
all around him in this London quar-
ter The young. the old. the single
criminal. criminal gangs, were all here
engaged in lawlessness of every kind
and degree. And Mr.. Mackenzie be-
gan then and there to make study
of this subject, always from the stand
point of the criminal himself. There
is no other way to approach such.
study, so the author maintains. What
kind of man is this criminal. or that
one? What led him to war against
his kind? What the drive of outer
circumstance? What the mental twist,
il there were one of the moral warp?
What in his home life. in education,
in training, or in the lack of these.
failed to hold him within the bond of
lawful behavior? Such are the ques-
tions that led this criminologist to ap-
proach each of the subjects studied
by him. And under such lead he has
offered studies of eight celebrated
criminal cases of the past 20 years.
The two Chicago hoys are in this COM
pany, the Russian Rasputin also,
Henri Landru, 'the French Blue
beard" of many murders, and other
sensational cases come forward here
for an examination into motive. into
personal psychology. into method. into
the ultimate reactions of the crime
upon the criminal himself and upon
society as well. A serious study whose
definite purpose is to get as near to
the truth of the matter as the complex
and puzzling nature of man permits
an intelligent student. a practical
psychologist, trained journalist to
come through determined and devoted
effort. Read in the spirit of its pro.
faction this hook is "A useful c0DfrilI1I