2 MAY 1908, Page 21

Isle Raven. By Owen Rhoscomyl. (Duckworth and Co. Os.)— This

is a story of an exceedingly lawless set of people who take possession of a small island off, we conclude, the coast of Wales. The inoidents are romantic, though they are a little difficult to credit as having happened in the year of .graee 1902. Yale, the solicitor to the owner of the island, is the chief figure in the book, and the adventures mostly happen to him. There is a suggestion of the rourder of the last owner to be investigated, and altogether the situation is exceedingly mysterious and involved. Perhaps, indeed, the story is a little too much involved, as it is diflimilt for the average reader to follow it without bestow.,rg on itran atten- tionmore concentrated than usually falls to the lot of the modern novel. However, the book is worth reading, if only for the suggestion of the author that such doings are possible in -the present day.