Under Lock and Key. By T. W. Speight. 3 vols.
(Tinsley.)—Those readers who admire Mr. Wilkie Coffins' Moonstone may here read another story about the adventures of a great diamond. This jewel, during the very short period of its history with which Mr. Speight enables us to become acquainted, is quite as fatal to the human race as Mr. Ruskin, who, if we remember right, believes the gem to be especially malignant, would wish to have it represented. Two men are murdered for its sake and a third commits suicide. It is satisfactory that it is finally disposed of in a way which will probably ensure its harmlessness for a long time to come. The story is a very fairly good one of its kind, and it is right to say that Mr. Speight clears himself by anticipation from any possible charge of having borrowed from Mr. Wilkie Collins. He has not got the art which his rival possesses of making every detail in his story subserve the general end, nor is his plot constructed with per- fect skill. The soliloquy, for instance, of Paul Platzoff in the railway- carriage, which first puts the captain on the scent, is the most unlikely thing in the world for a man bent on keeping a great secret to do. But the reader will have no difficulty in making his way through Under Lock and Key.
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