10 AUGUST 1895, Page 25

The Avenger of Blood. By J. Maclaren Cobban. (Cassell and

Co.)—The Avenger of Blood is the story of a young Arab chief who follows to England the man who has brought about his father's ruin and his brother's murder, in the hope of avenging upon him the wrongs of his house. The impression made upon the young fellow by the settled order of things in which he finds himself, so utterly different from the condition of life at home, and so adverse, it would seem, to the fulfilment of his purpose, is finely represented. The story is told with liveliness and force ; and though novel even to strangeness, can hardly be called im- probable. In the end, the " avenger " finds Western ideas too strong for him, and has to forego the extremity of justice. The working out of this change is also well told.