THE INCONSISTENT VILLAINS By N. A. Templ e Ellis (Methuen. 7s.
6d.)-The most incorrigible thrift. hunter will find ample scope for the indulgence of his passion in this book which has won first prize in Messrs. Methuen's detective novel competition. The generosity of the author is tremendous ; he has provided shrieks in the night, blood. written cyphers, abductions, impersonations, thrill upon thrill and death upon death. He excites the reader's curiosity lulls his sense of the probable, caters for his sense of humour, terrifies him in one chapter, reassures him in another, and mystifies him the whole time. It is very successful, and the secret of the success is this : two detectives set out to follow one trail, and happen upon two more, which, instead of being the usual false ones, are necessary threads in the warp of the story. Such apparently disconnected happenings as the death of a man in Derbyshire, a murder on an Essex marsh, the disappearance of an ex-munition maker's daughter from a London house, and the kidnapping of a Labour agitator from a north-bound train, are all woven together to make a cunning design. Our only criticism is that one of the detectives is just a little too clever, a shade too patronizing to his " Dear Watson " of a colleague. We know that he will always be right, and we are debarred from the luxury of any anxiety about him.
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