18 DECEMBER 1926, Page 29

THE NINE-POINTED STAR. By Claud W. Sykes. (Hamilton. 7s. 6d.)—Pretty

plainly Mr. Sykes is the literary child of Mr. Buchan, "Sapper' and Mr. Victor Bridges. With- out possessing all the dash and ingenuity of these writers, Mr. Sykes has succeeded in producing quite a readable story on their well-known sensational lines. The Nine-Painted Star is, of course, a secret society of cosmopolitan composition and gloriously sinister aims : in fact its purpose is to overthrow all governments in the world. Breathless reading all of it, but the author would do well to alter such locutions as " surburban," " inexpressably," and " head and tale," and one would be glad to know where or what is Samark Land (p. 130).