NOVELS FOR THE LIGHTHEAtTED.

A HOLIDAY is not a holiday unless a sauce to pleasant,idlcness is provided by a quantity of amusing lightfiction, We following classified. list is given, therefore, to help the readers of the Spectator in tligir choice of novels which may be calcu- lated to interest them without making any severe call upon their intellects. All the volumes have appeared within the last twelve months, and most of them since Christmas. The first and longest list is provided for those people who like a good deal of mustard in their literary food, and consists of Detective and Mystery stories. These are all calculated to keep their readers wide awake on the beach on the most somnolent summer afternoon—the first one mentioned may even be guaranteed to produce nightmare at dawn of the following day. All are published at 7s. 8d. net :--

DETECTIVE AND SENSATIONAL STORIES.

The Dark Eyes of London. By Edgar Wallace. (Ward, Lock and Co.) The Mystery in the .Ritemore. By William Johnston. (Jarrolds.) The Red Redmaynee. By Edon Phillpotts. (Hutchinson.) The Terriford Mystery. By Mrs. Belloc Lovmdes. (Hutchinson.) No. 3. By Lady. Kitty Vincent. (Herbert Jenkins.) The Abbey Court Murder. By Annie Haynes. (John Lane.) A.S.F. By John Rhode. (Geoffrey Bles.) The Red Ledge. By Victor Bridges. (Mills and Boon.) The Missing Million. By Edgar Wallace. (John Long.) • Poirot Investigates. By Agatha Christie. (John Lane.) The Red Lacquer Case. By Patricia Wentworth'. (1VUTOS0.) The Transactions of Oliver Prince. By Erstono Forbes. (Chapman and Hall.) MYSTERIES TREATED PROM THE LEGAL FOIST or Vrxw.

Marry. By Robert Bison. (Hutchinson.) (A specially interesting book.) John Clutterbuck. By Judge Ruogg, K.C. (Daniel.) COMEDIES or MAimans.

A London Mixture. By Mrs. Alfred Sidgwiek. (Collins.) The Comedy of Peter Taunton. By G. P. Robinson. (Duckworth.) The Conscience of Gavin Blanc. By W. E. Norris. (Hutchinson.) The Imperturbable Duchess. By J. D. Beresford. (Collins.) The Burden. By Jeffery E. Jeffery. (Leonard Parsons.) Old 'Sine Have Long Shadows. By Mrs. Victor Rickard. (Con-

stable.)

Those Young Married People. By John Travers. (Hodder and Stoughton.) The Forge. By Radclyffe Hall. (Arrowsmith.) Deep Meadows- By M. R. Larminie. (Chatto and Windus.) The School of Paris. By Robert A. Hamblin. (Allen and Unwin.) Quinney's Adventures. By Horace Annesley Vachell. (John

Murray.)

The Heavenly Ladder. By Compton Mackenzie. (Cassell's.)

110MANCE AND FANTASY.

The Painted Castle. By Gertrude Spinny. (Arnold.) The Princess and the Perjurer. By Alan Hillgarth. (Chapman and Dodd.)

COUNTRY STORIES.

The Black Cow. By Mary J. H. Skrine. (Arnold.)

The Finger Post. By Mrs. Henry Dudenoy. (Collins.)

STORIES OF INDIA, AFRICA AND THE FAR EAST.

Mock Majesty. By E. W. Savi. (Putnam.) The Runagate. By C. C. Lewis. (Jonathan Cape.)

Expectancy. By John Eyton. (Arrowsmith.)

The Tiger of Baragunga. By J. Inman Emory. (Jarrolds.) The Arms of the Sun. By Lady Dorothy Mills. (Duckworth.)

Sayonara. By John Paris. (Collins.)

Stella Nash. By " Ganpat." (William Blackwood.) Robinetta. By Beatrice Sheepshanks. (Selwyn and Blount.)

STORIES WITH AN ITALIAN BACKGROUND.

The Spell of Sirs's. By Muriel Hine. (John Lane.) Compromise. By Wilfranc 'Hubbard. (Macmillan.)

AMERICAN STORIES.

The Able McLaughlin- By Margaret Wilson. (John Long.) (A

book of outstanding ability.)

Marching On. By Ray Strachey. (Jonathan Cape.) So Big. By Edna Ferber. (Heinemann.) Dare's Gift and Other Stories. By Ellen Glasgow. (John Murray.) There remains to mention Wine of Fury, 'by Leigh Rogers (Grant Richards), a book of more serious 'interest, but so absorbing that the slight mental effort involved in reading it will :be found well worth while, 'especially On wet days.

-It must be by no means imagined that there are not many other novels published in the same twelve months which might have been included, but the above list covers many varieties of story, and every book mentioned in it contains some measure Of merit in its own line.