The Long Arm, by Mary E. Wilkins; and other Detective
Stories by other Writers. (Chapman and Hall.)—Although we have had of late perhaps a trifle too much of " detectivism " in fiction, and a new volume containing nothing but " detectivism " is on that account likely to be received with but little favour, there is no deny- ing the cleverness of the tales contained in this book, which are all of American origin, and have all, unless we are mistaken, appeared in Chapman's Magazine. "The Long Arm," which gives the title to the volume, has the charm of exceptional improbability. The father of the girl who tells the story is found murdered, and at first circumstantial evidence tells both against the daughter and against a Rufus Bennett, with whom he has had a quarrel. A Yankee detective of even more than the usual amount of trans- Atlantic cleverness turns up, however, and after some trouble in the securing of clues, brings the crime home to a certain Phoebe Dale. She kills the man merely because he is about to marry the woman who has been her inseparable companion for some years. " The Long Arm " is undoubtedly the most powerful story in this collection, but scarcely inferior is "The Murder at Jex Farm," which tells a somewhat similar tale. Almost equally ingenious, and not so sad, is "The Secret of the Treaty," although the betrayal of a great secret by a diplomatist in his sleep, is a trifle far-fetched. Everything considered, however, this is one of the best volumes of the kind that have ever been published.
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