The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-06-05
BY WALTER D. HICKMAN.

D1 WALLER IL. HUFFMAN
TOING on a vacation generally
" means that travel demands and
invites some books for the inter
ludes between sightseeing. Have
been asked to list a few books that
would be suitable in amy climate"
My list would include: 1.-THE Road
Back" by Erich Remarque Oittle
Brown; Years of Grace" by. Mar
garet Aver Barnes (Houghton Milf
flin); Stain" by Isaac D. Levine
(Cosmopolitan); Fatal Interview"
by Edna st. Vincent Millet (Harp-
err, and the poems of Walt Whit
man which 1 always take with me.
And for a mystery I sure would
tuck in 1.-THE Monks Hood Murders"
by the Edingtons, published by Cos
mopolitan.
FUNDAMENTALLY, Mexico Is an
Il Indian country" says Carleton
Beals in his new book, Mexican
Maze" just published by J. B. Lip
pincott Company. There are four
million Indians in Mexico and at
least eight and a half million mesti-
EOS, or people Of mixed blood, as
against million whites. Moreover
the mestizo is nearer the Indian
than the white and the great ma
jority of them are reabsorbed back
into the native race stream. The
Indian is the real, the basic Mexi-
can and once there is a new Indian
there will be a new Mexico"
After the circus left town, Court
ney Ryley Cooper stopped going to
see it every night and went back
to work OH the manuscript of his
new book. 1t is to be called Circus
Days" and will be published in the
autumn.
Farrar & Rinehart have rushed
/. j. Golden's play, Precedent"
through the presses and will publish
it early next week. This is the play
based on the Mooney Billings case,
it has just moved uptown from the
Provincetown Playhouse to the Bijou
theater where, critics say, it Is due
to have a great success.
VOU might be glad to know
l. about these detective stories
"The Second Shot," by Anthony
Berkeley (Crime Club 81. A guest
is slain at house party, and every
other guest present had both motive
and opportunity. One of the best of
the spring crop.
1.-THE Monks Hood Murders" by
the Ellington Cosmopolitan Book
Corporations; So. A newspaper
publisher dies, followed by the star
police reporter, and nobody knows
just how it happened. Puzzling and
well constructed.
Death at Winward HILL by
Helen Joan Huffman CFiction
League; so cents. Who shot the
old lady when she was dying of nat
ural causes? And why did the doc
tor act so strangely? And what did
the butler have up his sleeve? Easy
to read and hard to solve.
THE Midnight Mail" by Henry
Holt (Crime Club; 81. A lady gets
throttled on an English train and
a man is pitched overheard. There's
fine surprise in the last chapters.
TN "Fiddler's Green" Albert R.
L Wetjen has collected all the an
cient traditions and myths of the
sea and incorporated them in a
fanciful and beautifully conceived
novel.
Fiddler's Green was the paradise
of sea-going mythology; the sub
terranean island vale of Avalon, to
which all good sailors went on their
death, where there were no storms
and no watches to stand and where
a kindly providence recompensed
the slaves Of the rope for their lives
of toll.
Mr.. Wetjen takes a drowned
sailor TO Fiddler's Green and let's
US see what it was like. He tells
his tale with humor and imagina-
tive insight; and, strangely enough,
he makes it story Of real beauty
and tenderness.
=
THE following are recent books
Il that might interest you:
The Night Life of the Gods" by
Thorne Smith Doubleday, Doran
$3.50. A scientist brings sundry
Greek statutes to life and narries
a daughter Of the little people. 3"
Hilariously funny, and occasionally
somewhat shocking.
The Impotent General" by
Charles Petit (Horace Liveright.
Inc, SO. Another fanciful yarn
by the author of THE Son of the
Grand Eunuch." Mildly diverting,
but bit obvious. Not for your
Aunt Emma.
Samson and Delilah," by Felix
Salten (Simon g. Schuster, $2.50).
A well-written account of the ia
nous Old Testament romance, with
Delilah presented as a victim of
others wiles and not as a design
Ing temptress. Not bad: still. it
won't replace the original biblical