The Crime of the Century. By Rodrigues Ottolengui. (G. P.
Putnam's Sons.)—It may be doubted whether heredity in crimin- ality should be dealt with—or can be dealt with successfully—in fiction. But Mr. Ottolengui, who is admittedly one of the most successful writers of detective fiction in the United States, has made a very good attempt to treat this ticklish problem, although even he cannot help, vicariously and through the mouths of his characters, wandering away from the main line of plot into semi-scientific discussions which have the effect of delaying action. There are two very strong characters in the book Preacher Jim, the criminal in virtue of heredity, who murders that father from whom he inherits the homicidal tendency, and Leroy Mitchel, the amateur detective who ultimately traces to Jim's door the murder of Matthew Mora, "a many times millionaire,. prominent in Wall Street banking circles, as well as in Fifth Avenue drawing-rooms, and conspicuous for his many deeds of philanthropy." Mr. Ottolengui shows much skill in weaving the net of suspicion, and enmeshing in it Mora's son, who is a rather selfish and sensual worldling, and also in bringing home a long- forgotten sin to Colonel Payton, a retired soldier of approved. bravery, and one of the greatest of New York philanthropists. Altogether this is one of the most ingenious stories of the not specially attractive kind to which it belongs. It is, moreover, elevated by a moral purpose to which few, if any, of its rivals can lay claim.
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