His First Offence. By J. Storer Clouston. (Mills and Boon.
6s.)—The author of The Lunatic at Large gives us another of his jocund extravaganzas which in their main outlines have little or no correspondence with the facts of life, and yet are so briskly con- ducted and with such a wealth of circumstantial invention as to lead the reader from one absurdity to another in a mood of hilarious acquiescone,e in the improbable. The plot hinges on a murder; but as it is wholly imaginary, and as the supposed victim is equally responsible with the supposed culprit for creating the suspicion in which he is involved, the subject is shorn of all grue- some significance. Incidentally Mr. Clouston contrives to satirize the methods adopted by the "crime investigators" of the sensa- tional Press, but this excellent aim is somewhat obscured by the general atmosphere of absurdity.
Previous page
