Criminals I have Known. By Major Arthur Griffiths. (Chapman and
Hall.)—We must confess to a disrelish for this class of book. It is bad enough to have a series of discursive and egotistical ramblings on "Kings I have Met" or "Celebrities I have Supped with ; " but to come across some three hundred pages of short sensa- tional stories about criminals (and stories, be it observed, written always from the policeman's standpoint), is rather too trying. It cannot be pretended that such stories are edifying, though it must be admitted that Major Griffiths takes good care to show that the criminal is always outwitted and defeated by the servants of the law. But as these criminal tales are extremely scrappy and rarely interesting, we fail to see what object is served in dishing them up in book-form. Those who care for this kind of thing can always get enough of it and to spare in the columns of the penny Sunday papers or the Police News.
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