A Mender of Nets. By William Mackay. (Chatto and Windus.
6s.)—There is a good deal of poetry in the descriptions of the little East Anglian town in which the scene of this novel Is laid. "Lesborough" lies on the sand dunes bordering the North Sea, and Mr. Mackay has laid on his local colour with much charm. The accounts, too, of the Corporation and the municipal affairs of the town are amusing, and the hero, Daniel Wormald, is an interesting figure. Unfortunately, however, the two parts of the story do not go together at all happily, and it is very difficult to believe in the device by which Wormald gets Jennie Sebonne, the heroine, to marry him. Also the end of the book is of more than doubtful morality, for in spite of Wormald being obliged to leave his bride at the church door, it is impossible to deny that when Jennie Sebonne elopes with Reuben she is the legal wife of Wormald. Notwithstanding the good points in the book, it cannot be called quite successful, owing, as said above, to the author's difficulty in forming a complete whole out of the various materials at his disposal.
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