17 FEBRUARY 1917, Page 22

The Light above the Cross Roads. By Mrs. Victor Rickard.

(Duck- worth and Co. Gs.) —The psychology of a patriotic English spy is elaborately analysed in this book, and though the author does not succeed in making her story entirely convincing, yet it remains sufficiently true to life to be good reading. Marcus Janover, the hero, is not every sympathetic figure, but in the difficult circumstances in which he finds himself it is perhaps natural that he should not prove particularly attractive. Where Mrs. Rickard gets her facts from as to life in Berlin during the war cannot of course be known, but the scenes which she depicts are certainly credible. The whole book is interesting and in parts exciting, but the general effect on the mind of the reader is depressing.