The Desert Venture. By Frank Savile. (Edward Arnold. 6s.) —In
this story the author makes enormous demands on the reader's credulity, for he creates a French ex-soldier of European fame who is engaged in carving out an empire for himself in the heart of Africa. The plot, however, is chiefly concerned with an adventurer who gets hold of the brother of the heroine and causes him to engage in the dangerous pursuit of procuring rifles and a Maxim-gun for the use of the French explorer. The device by which the heroine succeeds in penetrating into the African desert in company with the hero, who has gone to rescue her brother, is also very difficult to credit. No one, however, can complain of any want of exciting adventures in the book, and there is bloodshed enough to satisfy the demands of the most ferocious reader. The novel is not entirely successful, but it is written with a great deal of spirit.
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