Reviews.

“The Valley of the Sky,” by Tarlton Rayment (Angus & Robertson, Sydney) is the British Empire winner in the All Nations Prize Novel Competition. Last month I reviewed the chief winner in this world-wide competition, and without hesitation I consider that Rayment's novel is superior even to the other, as fine as it is. The Australian prize winner I would almost place on a level with that greatest of all Australian novels “All That Swagger.” Tarlton is an artist in word pictures. He paints the Australian abo in the warm appealing colours of love of humanity. The hero of his story, Angus McAllen, is a lovable Scots pioneer who carves out his destiny in the back country of Australia and also in the hearts of his beloved black-fellows.

“The Mussolini Murder Plot,” by Bernard Newman (Hutchinson, London; Whitcombe & Tombs New Zealand agents) is a selection of the Crimes-book Society. To my mind it is a rather irresponsible flight of fancy on the part of the author, and if international law permits has a nest of libel actions in its pages, that is if Mussolini cares to proceed against the author or publisher. Newman has built other novels around the names of leading world figures, but none so provocative as this. “Suppose Mussolini had been killed on the first day of the Abyssinian war! He very nearly was,”— so the book begins. The story will certainly entertain many people, but it may also sow in the minds of some dangerous thoughts and ideas, also a totally false conception of Mussolini.

“The Fortunes of Captain Blood,” by Rafael Sabatini (Hutchinson, London; Whitcombe & Tombs New Zealand agents) justifies the bookseller flooding his window with copies of the book with the big selling announcement “Another Sabatini!” Yes, Sabatini still has his hold on the general public as one of the world's best sellers. This latest book of the adventures of that most agreeable buccaneer, Captain Peter Blood, is quite as exciting and just as readable as the earlier chronicles. The new book is a series of episodes on the career of this swashbuckling hero, the best being “The Dragon's Jaw.”