16 MAY 1891, Page 24

Winter's Tale. By Mary E. Mann. 2 vole. (Bentley and

Son.)—This is a story of the " shilling dreadful " kind which the author has seen fit to expand into the more orthodox two-volume shape. It is a good one of its sort. The murder of Penny is a mystery which, for a time at least, will puzzle most readers. The girl's history, however, is not quite clear. Was Shadrach Bush lying when he told the Squire that she had asked him to marry her P The love-story of Erica and Hugh Barty is sufficiently interesting, and the last scene, in which the murderer receives his coup de grace, decidedly effective.