HOLIDAY NOVELS
IT has long been a commonplace of fiction, and indeed of real life, that marriage to a genius is a very trying relationship. In First Fiddle (Collins, 7s. 6d. net), the author, Jean Greig, makes her heroine carry her care for her husband's well-being to the point of suicide—a questionable and cowardly solution of her difficulties. The book otherwise is pleasantly written, and the opening chapters realize ingeniously the dullness of the life of the ordinary young lady in a country town. * * * Mr. Martin Mills' heroine in Brangane (A Memoir, Constable, 6s.), makes worldly success her sole aim in life, and contrives to rise from the ranks of small traders to the peerage. Her adventures are unconvincing, but her downfall and death are in accordance with the strictest tenets of morality. * * * Two ingenious pieces of literary chess- playing are The Man with the Scar, by John Lomas (Heine- mann, 7s. Od. net), and The House of Secrets, by Sydney Horler (Hodder and Stoughton, 8s. 6d. net). The adventures in both are thrilling, but the characters are pawns, not people.
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