18 SEPTEMBER 1886, Page 23

A Diamond in the Rough. By Alice O'Hanlon. 3 vols.

(Hurst and Blackett.)—We remember a rather clever story called "Louisiana," where a girl was ashamed of her father, who was a rough Californian farmer, and practised a deception the only ill effects of which were the distress produced in the girl herself by the con- Scioutmess of her false pride. In the volumes before us, the same sort

of false pride leads to the perpetration of a felony, which is thwarted but condoned by three gentlemen who play a prominent part in the story. It is not too much to ask of a writer who treats of a horrid crime that the motive which leads to its perpetration should be adequate, and, in our opinion, this is not so in the present calm For the rest, this novel is easily written and fairly interesting.