... . By Mary Gaunt. T. Werner Laurie.) Unless inspired with a Hilda Wangel thirst for the frightfully thrilling, it were better to read Mrs. Gaunt's book about the mummy in the most reassuring, not to say commonplace, surroundings. Even so, an attack of the creeps is almost inevitable. Three murders follow each other, with pre cisely similar details of a ferocious, uncivilised brutality. They ...

... . By Maud Stepney Rawson. {Hutchinson. 6s.) This is in many ways a pleasant story, the scene of which is laid at Rye, where William Malines, a skilled and energetic shipbuilder, conceives great harbour schemes which are obstinately resisted by the neighbouring squirearchy. It is a contest between the forces of land and sea, and land wins. The hero, Sterne Wildish, who* becomes, even before ...

... . Bv Wilijam me Morgan. Heinemann It never can happen again, certainly, this Victorian prodigality of material and labour. There were giants in those days, and one of them has survived into our own, an object of wonderment to the hurrv-scurrvina twentieth century. , with its wealth of leisure and humour and rambling character-study, fills the eye in much the same way that one of the crack ...

... . By Mrs. Henry Dudbney. Heinemann The effect of A Sense of Scarlet, looking back upon it after closing the book, is drab- coloured, not to say dismal. The trouble seems to lie, not with Mrs. Henry Dudeney's undoubted gift of description, but with her pessimistic attitude towards her fellow -mortals. Mrs. Dudeney writes with so much grim power that the melan choly stories, such as The ...

... . By A. S. Forrf.st and S. L. Bbnsusan. {A. and C. Black. 20s.) To the colourist Morocco has always offered irresistible temptations, and Sunset Land, which has lately been the subject of books not a few, has now moved a knight of the brush and a knight of the pen to join forces for its description in yet another volume. 'I he result is the entire justification of the undertaking. Morocco, ...

... sasSs^ SECRET SERVICE.* FEW words run better in couples than secret and service: alone they are commonplaces; together they are fascinating. Sir Robert Anderson need have no fear as to the fate of his book. It is certain that the truths with which he deals are not invariably stranger than the fiction that has to tell of such wonder- men as Arséne Lupin, Raffles, and Sherlock Holmes; but ...

... MR. EDEN PHILLPOTT S' NEW NOVEL. The Forest on the Hill. By Eden Phili potts. J oh n Af/i rray. Often before has Mr. Phillpotts told his tales in the dear dialect of Devon and lent them gracious association with names familiar to Dartmoor, and this last tale of his fulfils the same conditions, but goes deeper, deep as Earth herself. For the earth 's the thing declared Timothy Snow, as his ...

... . By Richard Marsh. Chalto and Windus.) It would be a pity if the reader should be put off by a ridiculous buhl table and some impos sible people in the early chapters of Mr. Marsh's story. In spite of much fantastic clumsiness in the building of her fate, his heroine does manage to get into the affections, and will afford her admirers the enioyment ot some very tnruimg scenes. Jtreaks ol ...

... . By A. C. Benson. {Isbistcr. 6s.) A very delicate literary art is employed by Mr. A. C. Benson in his short stories, which bear the title of the first of the collection, and it is a pity that the matter does not always justify the manner. But there is throughout an exquisite suggestion ot the Light that never. was on sea or land, a gentle atmosphere of the cloister, the college, the court, ...

... By Robert Barr. [Isbister. 6s.) Over the Border is one of the few adventure- stories that justify the use of the adjective stirring. Mr. Robert Barr has chosen a period that has been the prey of novelists innumerable, hut lie has chosen an episode of that period that has but seldom formed the basis of a plot, and the interest in his narrative never fails. The chief place in his romance ...

... I . The A' Becketts of Punch (Constable. 12s. 6d.) is one of those agreeable books, written by a clever and respected member of a clever and respected family, that invite friendly notice, but not criticism. Where it keeps to the subject indicated by its title, it is a very pleasant family history, a credit to a creditable and popular father and sons who did much to raise the light literature ...

... . By Leon Xatiroff. Theatre des Folies- Dramatiques. Vigile is a rich young bachelor with no other encumbrances than an affectionate heart and a valet named Alfred. Both Alfred and the heart are something of a trial. Alfred steals his master's cigars and makes himself generally objectionable, and there are difficulties in the way of arranging for the definite settlement of the affectionate ...