Ghosts' Gloom, by J. G. Holmes (Swan Sonnenachein), is dedicated
to Mr. Wilkie Collins, and in spite of a certain clever- ness which characterises it, can only be described as sensationalism in fiction reduced to farce. No doubt Caleb Devilton, as a murderer, a bigamist, and what not, is a stupendous scoundrel, and makes the two women, Rosamund and Eva, who are unfortu- nate enough to fall into his hands, suffer a great deal. But some- how one feels about Caleb as one does about the terrible giant in old pantomime, and the game of hide-and-seek which is played between Rosamund and Eva has so little genuine mystery about it as to be positively uninteresting. The chapter in which the murder of Eva takes place is, nevertheless, written with such tragic power—we might have been spared the razor element in it, however—that it may be safely predicted Mr. Holmes will some day write a better book than Ghosts' Gloom.
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