Caught at Last ! by Dick Donovan (Chatto and Windus),
is described as consisting of "Leaves from the Note-Book of a Detective," and belongs to a class of literature which is admirably adapted for railway reading. The majority of detective stories are, of course, pure fiction ; but the tales told by Mr. Donovan have the appearance of being at least founded on fact, and one or two of them deal with the misdeeds of well-known criminals, such as Pritchard the poisoner and the notorious Charles Peace. Mr. Donovan does not, we should think, pretend to the possession of any special literary gift, but he writes a simple, business- like style, and he certainly knows how to tell a story effectively. Such knowledge is, in a book of this kind, the one thing needful, and readers of Caught at Last ! are pretty certain not to be dis- appointed. "A Hunt for a Murderer," who had taken refuge in the Woolwich Marshes, is a very exciting bit of narrative.
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