Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-20

New Volume the Subject of Criminology Written b,
Scientists-Our New England Ancestors Several
Late Novels.

away off-step right in here and imme-
dlately you are on the way.
THAT MAGIC FIRE. BY Sylvia Bates.
New York: Harper g. Bros.
HERE is the familiar theme upon
which novelists thrive, one, too,
whose counterpart is matter of every
day IN real life. II looks, therefore. as
II this might be somewhat thread
bare theme. And so it might be in
That Magic Fire" were it not for the
manifest newness of its author to both
life and to the art of writing. There
is an atmosphere of innocence about the
story, an artless touch to its projection,
an unwaywiSe spirit adventuring here
that serves to make brand-new matter
OF very old tale, one that sometimes
comes out battered and unlovely chan
ter in human errapcy. The old story
three of these folks. combining and
separating, making every possible shift
that the scanty number, three, permits.
The theme has been turned inside out,
upside down. hindside to-tIrned to
every conceivable pattern. So there Is
nothing new here-except the concep-
ton of the author and her way Ct
putting this over. Young love comet
prudent misgivings, then marriage witt
more promising man. The matri.
monial experience moves along staidl.
and properly with children and WITH
the rest of married life. 1t would have
gone on so till the end-that Is, til.
somebody in the family arrangement
died out of tiff the lover of the wom-
ans girlhood had not returned, bring
ing his own power of enchantment with
him. If this had not happened there
would. to be sure, have been no story
Just plain married life instead and this
is not rich in romantic appeal. But
he did come back, and there follows
the struggle of the girl with herself on
the one hand, with her sense OF decency
and fair dealing on the other. 1t Is this
that makes the story through an inter-
esting season of good intent and a
faltering spirit in which the girl Is
very natural and engaging warrior with
herself. Now the end Of the story is
well, Just what do you think 1t would
be, should be. in such a web of circum-
stance? A very familiar web, by the
way. Not a sensational story. Some
thing like a chapter of life itself, in
steady. Very charming as writing, TOO
which counts.
THE INSTRUMENT OF DESTINY; a
Detective Story. BY J. D. Beresford.
author of Loves Pilgrim" etc. In
dianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Co.
THE old man was found dead-poi-
soned. A day. perhaps an hour,
of letting we'll enough alone would have
turned the trick, would have removed
him conclusively from the anxieties OF
| his waiting relatives. An old man with
children and grandchildren getting I'M
easy as to the material issue. Old folks
are fitful. change their minds, do lot
of mischief as careleSSly as naughty
children. Well, the old man Is dead.
The next thing is to find out who put
him away so hurriedly. And the story
wends its way through the rather over
worn roads followed by the modern de-
tective. BY and by, after story
length of comings and goings, the
criminal is found. And his finding
brings to an anti-climax the matter Of
the murder of misery old Fytton,
whose parental exactions had weaned
all of his children from him. That
which Mr. Beresford is trying to show
is that within this family there were
the elements of feeling-resentment
dislike, weariness-that, rounded and
focused. came to bear directly upon
the thing that happened. came to pro-
duce the crime. Yet the actual out
come is like slapping baby for drop
ping his bott'e--a complete and disap-
pointing let-down.