4 DECEMBER 1897, Page 11

Old Corcoran's Money. By Richard Dowling. (Chatto and Windus.)—This is

a good tale of its kind ; incidents abound ; character is strongly marked ; there is a sufficiency of suspense and surprise. We must own that we have not been able to see how it all fits in. O'Gorman with his money, for instance, is something of a puzzle. He diverts suspicion from the actual truth, but neither his possession of the money nor his use of it is quite clear. At the same time the picture of the man, with his irrational, unprincipled good-nature, is as good as anything in the book.