22 JULY 1989, Page 21

CURRENT LITERATURE Ghosts' Gloom, by J. G. Holmes (Swan Sonnenschein),

in spite of a certain cleverness which characterises it, can only be described as sensational- ism in fiction reduced to farce.... The chapter in which the murder of Eva takes place is, nevertheless, written With such tragic power — we might have been spared the razor element in it, however — that it may be safely pre- dicted Mr Holmes will some day write a better book than Ghosts' Gloom. The Spectator, 20 July 1889