1 APRIL 1865, Page 21

Son and Heir. No author. (Hurst and Blackett.)—Readable novel, with

a slightly absurd plot. Hero breaks the heart of everybody about him because he will not break an absurd promise of secrecy extorted from him on a death-bed. Authoress apparently considers this admir- able, and forgets entirely the terrible difficulty which besets even good men in keeping any promise at all through a lapse of years, and the habit all mon good and bad have of trusting some one person with secrets as being in fact only part of themselves. The characters are very much better than the plot, and the dialogue than the characters.