The Master of Greylands. By Mrs. Henry Wood. 3 vols.
(Bentley.)— Mrs. Wood calmly pursues her course, and finding doubtless a sufficiency of readers, takes very little heed of what the critics may say. And indeed these gentlemen have nothing to say that is very damaging. There is nothing like literary art about these volumes, but then there is nothing offensive about them, and they are fairly readable. In The Master of Greylands, before we get through the first half of the first volume, a mysterious murder is committed, and thenceforward the question which is supposed to absorb the reader is, Who did it 1'" His suspicions are with a certain degree of ingenuity directed to one of the characters, while they are at the same time hindered from growing into conviction. And then, towards the end of the third volume, the mystery is revealed, and turns out to be something that one never expected. That must be taken as a success. Meanwhile there has been love- making of various kinds going on. A ghost appears, and is found to be a living person, who has very substantial reasons for keeping to him- self the domain which he is supposed to haunt. And there is a vast amount of talk, and of all the little details which Mrs. Wood delights to introduce. Doubtless she describes with accuracy—with photographic accuracy, if the compliment would please her—but then her photographs are like those which house-agents are now putting up on their boards —common-place suburban villas, with no more character about them than there is about a carpenter's rule.
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