The Story of John Coles. By M. E. Kenyon. (Digby,
Long, and Co.)—This book is painfully amateurish. The author obviously has the idea that a story, to be popular nowadays, must contain at least one crime, and, in the matter of conversation, must be a trifle " societyish." But the criminality in this book is crude, and the talk, even although the attempt has been made to give it the correct country-rectory look, is far from being up to the mark. The murder of John Coles by Tom Stokes, and the per- sonation of the murdered man by the murderer, are not at all improbable, and such things have been admirably managed ore now by Miss Braddon. But Stokes is not content, as he should be, with bringing about one death ; he must needs try his hand at several others. The result is simply a sense of dreary dissatis- faction. Of the leading female characters, perhaps the less said the better. Mrs. Danvers is, on the whole, the best. There is a touch of humour about, though not in her, and the frequent repetition of her creed that "the plain duty of every woman is to get married," is not wholly unpleasant.
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