1 OCTOBER 1927, Page 27

OLDHAM. By Catherine Verschoyle. (Longmans. 7s. 6d.)—The vampirish housekeeper known

as Oldham decidedly succeeds in making the reader, as well as the families who unaccountably endured her, experience a creepy aversion now and then. The idea of the book is that the woman's hypnotic power for evil is met and mastered by the courage of the girl Anne, who has a touch of the higher mys- ticism in her. But Oldham is too crude and obvious alto- gether : she belongs to sheer melodrama. The description of the two kindred families influenced by her is on quite another plane. It is didactic and domestic ; and we remain uncon- vinced that Oldham- would not have been dismissed as un- healthy long before she became dangerous.