WHAT'S BECOME OF WARING?

A literary disappearing trick is indeed lighter than air and concerns the search for T.T. Waring, a Lowell Thomas type traveloguist- the ""perfect exemplar of a form of woolly writing that appeals irresistibly to uncritical palates"". From a medium's first intimations that something is wrong, during a seance, to the news release of his death, this follows on as members of his publishing firm and his potential post-humous biographer attempt to get a line on Waring. Successive discoveries reveal his alias as Robinson-only one of his ""noms de guerre""; personal belongings, the books he'd cribbed from; and finally T.T. himself, making a getaway with a rich woman, in a new incarnation which is that of an old acquaintance.... This is an early novel, fighter certainly than any in The Music of Time, but since it stands alone- it may well make new converts to the claque-for Mr. Powell is certainly a waggish, stylish, elegant entertainer.