The Power Behind. By M. P. Willcocks. (Hutchinson and Co.
6s.)—Whatever may be thought of the theories con- cerning modern life which Miss Willcocks appears to wish to ventilate in this novel, no one can deny the painstaking care with which her work has been done. It cannot be said that any of the characters of the story are particularly sympathetic, and Sophie, the heroine, will offend some readers, not once but several times, both by her emotions and by her actions. The men of the Botterill family are so extraordinarily unlike other people that it is difficult to accept the heroine's first husband, Moysey Botterill, as a possible figure in everyday life, and Miss Willcocks fails to convince us that he would have conducted the affair of his wedding on such very crooked lines. Equally unnatural is Sophie's action in the matter ; but the consequent unhappiness of the married couple, who treat their wedding as a secret though everybody knows about it, is certainly true to life. As for Sophie's second marriage to an elderly doctor with whose daughter her first husband had a flirtation, it cannot endear her to the reader, and the sacrifice of her unfortunate small boy, Peter, seems quite uncalled for. Surely so devoted a mother as Sophie would have looked at the matter to a certain extent from the point of view of the welfare of Peter, and not exclusively as a dutiful sacrifice to her mother-in-law. The book is written in great detail, and the absence of any engaging characters adds to the effort of perusal.
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