Evening star., 1934-09-05
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
Margwet Cermond.
NIGHT SHIFT. BY Richard Blaker.
New York: D. Appleton Century

Co.
In its review of might Shift" the
London Observer says, "the quality Of
Mr.. Bakers writing is shown by the
fact that you can be continually ex-
| cited even if you happen to regard ma
chinery as a mechanic might regard q
| volume of Proust" The comment is
an apt and adequate expression Of the
sense of comradeship between man
and machine to which even the un-
initiated will respond as the drama OF
Might Shift" unfolds.
Save for several minor departures
from the original scene, the entire &C
ton of this intensely interesting and
skillfully written novel takes place in
large twenty-four garage on q
busy English highway, where Hales, a
| kindly, soft-spoken, wholesomely
trustful Scotsman presides as night
| foreman. A mechanic to whom the
proper use of tools Is an art and to
whom things" represent a tangible
| element of relationship between the
animate and the inanimate, there Is
no ailment from which motor car
can suffer that Hales cannot cure.
In this world of mechanics, which he
knows so thoroughly, where under the
glare of high-powered lights the throb
of motors, the clang of metal against
metal, the slap of belts, the whinny-
| ing of harnessed electricity and the
spluttering of welding flames respond
| to his direction as a mighty orchestra
responds to the baton of its conductor,
no problem is to complex for his
genius to solve. But in the world of
his private life he walks in the dark
ness of hopelessness, for he Is power
less to relieve from the agonies Of an
| incurable disease the wife whom he
loves dearly.
The events which give the story
its sturdy backbone begin one night
when a stranger drives into the garage
and leaves his car for the specific
attention of Hales. His arrival oc-
ours at a moment when Hales is
brooding over the tragedy which is
closing in upon him. He learns that
| the stranger Is a famous surgeon,
and in a few moments they are OF
to the mechanics home, and as
result of his visit the surgeon promises
to do everything in his power to
help the invalid. Following immedi-
ately upon this unexpected develop
ment in his personal affairs Hales
discovers that the excursion of the
surgeon to the garage was for a
purpose far removed from the desire
to have his car overhauled by the
renowned mechanic.
1t is not in the nature of the
IzA- sxl.% Is,xs-, IAL D.
to question or disapprove the private
| life of any one. His own code of
honor might not permit him to engage
in unconventional pleasures, but that
same code of honor is too genuine to
permit condemning thought to enter
his head against any one who might
depart from the rules Of conduct
which govern him. So there is still
another world in which he finds him
self unable to understand the prob
lens which beset him. He has no
adequate equipment of defense against
the foul-minded day foreman of the
shop, whose slurs and taunts and
| slanderous gossip comprise the sum
total of his conversational ability.
Eventually there comes moment
/ VI uAod114bys IL COA41Co W3b24 olAONh4k16
speed, and the result is as dramatic
/ as it is unexpected. For there is
another character in this odd story,
the owner of the garage, whose knowl-
edge of men and whose wisdom in
handling them serves as q steadying
though underlying influence upon the
individuals in his employ.
1t is a fascinating novel, cleverly
contrived and told with a straight
forward and impressive simplicity.
A STORM IS RISING. BY George
II Dyer. Boston: Houghton Milf
| fin Co.
Edmund Dempster and his attractive
wife, Gordon, move into the hills of
Pennsylvania to enjoy the peace and
comfort which moderate wealth can
give to two wholesome and happy
Eyoung people who love the pleasures
afforded by q country estate and the
freedom of life on a competently
managed farm. !. But they soon learn
that the joys Of release from the tur-
moil of the great metropolis are some
times tempered by disappointments
and annoyances Of an unsuspected
nature.
II The first disillusionment comes with
the knowledge that their nearest
neighbor, who claims to be an artist,
is a, careless, insolent, indolent and
damage-inflicting man whose appar-
ent poverty neither accounts for nor
excuses his queer behavior. An at
mosphere Of mystery surrounds the
place, but to both Edmund and Cor
don it Is too elusive to define. Inex-
plainable happenings occur on the
artists property, occasionally leading
to disastrous consequences.
Through the death of a prize horse,
caused by gross negligence on the part
! of the artist in leaving barrier down,
the beautiful and impressionable sis
ter Of Gordon becomes fascinated by
man of dynamic personality to
whom she is so strongly attracted that
she Is promptly drawn into q plot for
the salvation Of man, which Is to be
achieved through the destruction of
New York and five other large Amer
ican cities, including the Capital of
the Nation. To the egocentric, who
has devised and is directing this
scheme of colossal magnitude, there
is no such word as failure.
How Anne's infatuation for Ber-
nard Wolff demoralizes her powers OF
perception, how Edmund, his dare
devil brother Gerry and Gordon strive
to win her back, and how Anne
eventually comes to the realization
that she has been deceived by a
cold-blooded ruthless criminal and
then becomes super woman in engi-
neering a counter-plot to save not
only her loved ones but the Nation
makes a story that is highly inter-
esting and spectacular. and plausible
as well.
If there should ever arise in this
country a leader with the two-edged
ability and the genius for organiza-
ton possessed by Wolff, such an
overthrow of municipal, State and
National Government as he planned
might conceivably be carried to sue
cess. Men of that capacity for leader
ship, however, do not develop in the
| IF cnariac ~ cfe