No. 99 and Blue Blood. By Major Arthur Griffiths. (John
Macqueen. 3s. 6d.)—Here we have another detective-story, and so another difficulty in the task of reviewing. We will confess that the secret of the denouement is well kept, and that till the scent grew positively hot we did not know who was about to be run down. But then we do not feel quite sure that the crime at the detection of which we are invited to assist would in actual life have been committed as is here represented. The victim of the blackmailer turning upon him and putting him out of the way by violence is a probable incident. But can one imagine the blackmailer murdered for the sake of the lucrative secret on which he trades ? Surely a secret cannot be acquired in such a fashion. The blackmailer must be prepared, and his victim must know that he is prepared, to come into court in the last resort. His substitute, if he may be so called, would hardly venture to submit himself to cross-examination. The victim in this case is no weakling, and he has the support of two courageous women. Blue Blood, the shorter story, is a commonplace tale, of which we can say no more than that it fills up a vacant place in the volume in a fairly satisfactory way.
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