THE MEN OF SILENCE. By Louis Forgoine. (Dent. 7s. 6d.)—This
is a book for the serious student of Italian history or of crime rather than for the average novel reader. It deals with the last phase of the Camorra, the famous secret criminal society that, having prospered for centuries in Naples, showed a final fluttering of its old activity just before the Great War. In describing the Cuocolo murders and the sixteen months' trial that followed them, M. Forgoine keeps closely to fact. The tardy and difficult triumph of justice in a society thoroughly permeated with intrigue and violence is rich enough in natural drama, and the writer has wisely contented himself with the mildest of fictional devices, though the pictorial background and the portraits of the leading actors have given scope for his considerable gifts of charm and imagination.
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