23 NOVEMBER 1912, Page 26

The Snarer. By Brown Linnet. (John Murray. 3s. 6d. net.)—

No more delightful character than that unrepentant old sinner Betsy Blythe has appeared within the last ten years in the pages of fiction. She is a most abominable old hypocrite, and, sad to say, the reader always takes her side in her nefarious adventures. Perhaps the story how she rent from poor Mrs. Davis the washing of " his Reverence's " surplice is the most delightful, but "A Moonlight Sonata," in which she leads the constable and his satellite a tremendous dance over half the countryside, is also extremely entertaining. No one will read of her being in the end overtaken by just retribution without sincere sorrow, and the idea that. Betsy should leave. England and go to America is quite heartbreaking.