Great Porter Square: a Mystery. By B. L. Farjeon. (Ward
and Downey.)—There are still stories to tell, Mr. Farjeon seems to think, and his readers will probably agree with him. That the tale of the murder in "Great Porter Square" might have been told in smaller- compass is hardly, as things go, a fair charge as against the writer, who is bound by non-literary considerations. Mr. Farjeon deserves the praise of having done what he intended,—perplexed and in- terested his readers. We may think, perhaps, that the sensational descriptions of the "Evening Moon " are only too like what actual "penny-a-lining " produces; but we go on reading without weari- ness. The " Lamia" of the story, as fair and as deadly a creature as ever lured a man to destruction; the villain, painted in the very deepest black that art can supply ; the intelligent "waif," who does so much to bring about the right result ; these, and, indeed, all the personages of the tale, are vigorously drawn. The novel does not pretend, of course, to be a novel of character. Yet character is given with sufficient skill ; while of the variety of incident and of its ingenious complication no one can complain.
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