15 JUNE 1912, Page 26

Peter Ru f f. By E. Phillips Oppenheim. (Hodder and Stoughton. 2s.

not.)—Mr. Phillips Oppenheim's detective hero illustrates the motto, " Sot a thief to catch a thief." Dark and mysterious allusions to his former life prove that he has most emphatically what is known as a "past." In the very first chapter, before he becomes a detective, he does what schoolboys would call a "bunk" under the very noses of the police. The episodes in his career are not particularly original, but they are well constructed and exciting, and people who like reading about detectives will find them sufficiently entertaining.