Evening star., 1933-08-02
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
SHOES THAT HAD WALKED TWICE
BY Jean Toussaint-Samat. Philadel-
phia: ]. B. Lippincott Co.
Margaret Cermond.

SHOES THAT HAD WALKED TWICE
BY Jean Toussaint-Samat Philadel.
phia: J. B. Lippincott Co.
1t Is not often that a novel wins tn,
acclaim Of an entire nation More par.
ticularly Is 1t a rare thing for myster,
novel to create sensation of whole.
sale proportions, for this seems to bt
the era of detective stories, and the
writer's OF this class Of fiction are some
what hard put to devise new plots, new
methods, new motives and new types O.
solvers OF the. riddles which grow ou
OF the misdeeds conceived and per.
petrated by human beings with crimina
brains. There are, of course, annua
prizes In every class Of literature, ane
each year they are won by somebody
but frequently the reasons for thu
awards are entirely beyond the compre'
hension Of even the most inveterate
readers. 1t Is therefore truly refresh
Ing experience to find prize novel tina
is IN all respects worthy Of the honol
tnat has been bestowed upon its author
"Shoes That Had Walked Twice" wor
for Jean Toussaint-Samat the coveted
French Prix du Roman d'Adventures O.
1882. 1t is one Of the unusual types o.
mystery, and 1t is highly meritorious II
all Of the requirements of a first-clas.
story.
On the road between Istres ant
Marseilles near the little village oi
Tholon, an Englishwoman has lived
for some years. She has been but on,
OF the many artists from all parts of the
world who still flock to the Isle O.
Martigues and its nearby territory
despite the invasion OF hideous indus
trial enterprises since the Great War
Like all other colonies where artists o.
all sorts gather, the successful ones ar,
| only transients, while the eccentrics arr
mostly permanent
Miss Gilchrist belongs to the lattel
class. Ten years before the openine
events Of the story this tall, angular
masculine looking woman had arrived
in Martigues with full equipment O.
artists paraphernalia. Shortly after
ward she settled down In Tholon anc
began painting Landscapes. The pop.
ulace failed to find merit in the daub.
and smears with which she plasterec
her canvasses, but her kindliness anc
charitableness soon won a warm place
for her in the hearts of her neighbors
and despite her eccentricities she was
regarded as the good angel of the
community.
On the morning which marks the
beginning of this thrilling record OF
extraordinary and mystifying events
Miss Gilchrist is found dead in hel
cottage at Tholon. her face and hand.
literally destroyed, and her two police
dogs, fangs dripping blood, beside the
body. Attacked and devoured by hel
pets Is the verdict Of the local police
Such conclusion is quite what woulc
naturally be expected of the French
constabulary in localities which are
popular as show places, play grounds
and resorts to which travellers are at
tracted. Murders and such unpleasant
things as robberies and blackmail are
bad for tourist trade. so it Is lust
matter Of plain good business not tt
have them.
But in the case Of Miss Gilchrist it SC
happened that fisherman in yellow
and green sweater, who had been vaca.
tioning in the community for some days
and who was known as M. Jacquot. wa:
Inspector 100 Of the Counter Espionage
Section of the Intelligence Service OF
France. And whatever may be true OF
untrue about the efficiency OF the police
Of that nation in the handling of crime
ordinarily, the entire force is made tc
step up by M. Toussaint-Samat and
salute to the service which every mans
son Of them knew had played so i'm
portant part in the late war
The Englishwoman had been mur-
dered, but why she should have met
SO tragic an end is beyond the under
standing of the neighbors and friends
who loved her. NJ. Jacquot, however,
has reason to believe that he knows
why she was slain, and it is his job
to prove his conviction. He suspects
international intrigue to be at the root
Of the case and that one Of the spy
systems has caught up with an enemy
The plot is so logical, the actors in
its performance are so believable, and
the working out OF the story is so
dramatic that it is no wonder that the
book was received by France with a
storm of applause.
HE ARRIVED AT DUSK. BY r. c.
Ashby. New York: The Macmillan
Co.
Rainy, wind-lashed, fog-bound north
country England is the scene Of this
wierd story Of Roman ghost, hun
dreds of years old, who played nerve
racking tricks in the big gloomy house of
an old English estate belonging to the
Barr family. and who stalked the moor
on misty nights leaving murder in his
wake.
Billy Mertoun, interested in an
tiQueS, receives a strange commission
from an old man up in the Northum-
berland region to place a valuation
upon the books and furniture in his
ancient mansion. The letter was a
month old when he received it and
the envelope had not been addressed
by the same hand that had penned It's
content. Neither circumstance, how
dicative of anything mysterious. so he
accepted the commission and went to
The Broch.
On his arrival he found almost NO
furnishing of real value. and amid q
veritable chaos of thousands of badly
used books there were none worth
more than the value a secondhand
dealer would offer for them. What he
found most and plenty of was cold,
raw, foggy weather, a household of
terrified human beings and a county
side rife with tales of The Horror which
lived in the home Of Col. Barr.
One murder had been committed by
the ghost and several severe accidents
had injured some of the neighbors
prior to the arrival of Mertoun. After
his arrival another murder was COM
mitted and many hair-raising episodes
took place, among them the lodging of
Roman sword deeply into the wall
Of the library during the holding of a
seance in which 1t was hoped that the
ghost might be laid.
The apparition which several people
claimed to have seen on the moor was
accepted to be the ghost of Vitelius
Grachhus, whose army had met defeat
on the site on which the Barr mansion
stood. Among the many eerie things
about the place was a circular tower
to one side of the house, in which
Grachhus was believed to hatch his
evil plots, and a so-called living
stone in the cellar of the house, on
which day by day the inscription,
barely visible when the stone was dis
covered, became more legible
Mertoun was summarily dismissed
from his jo'i before it was finished. and
on his retur I to London he suffered fit
of nerves. duAng which he told the story