The Chest of Opium. By Mr. M—. (Neville Beeman.)—This is
a tale of murder in China. It wants close following, for without this it loses coherence; with it the reader finds it to be a careful study, not unlike the work of Edgar Allan Poe. One begins to doubt, after this Japanese business, whether the Chinese are so very clever after all. But it is quite certain that when the teller of the tale took a cup of the tea which came in so strange a fashion he was not clever at all.—The Rome Express. By Major Arthur Griffiths, (J. Nisbet).—Here is another murder story, the scene being laid in a train which runs from Rome to Paris. The plot is very cleverly contrived, for the reader thinks that he sees through it, and finds, when he reaches the development in due -course, that the writer has completely taken him in. We com- mend the tale to those who like a mystery skilfully elaborated.
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