The Mauleverer Murders. By A. Fox-Davies. (John Lane. 6s.)—This is
an instance of an introductory novel being written later than its sequel ; but those who have not read "The Danger- vine Inheritance" will find the present work absolutely complete in itself. As a detective story the book suffers a little from the same thread of interest not being sustained all through. For the first third, roughly speaking, of the volume the whole problem is the detection of the person who committed the hfauleverer murders. But from the moment of the arrest of the heroine the interest is transferred to the possibility of proving her innocence. It must be owned that the Duchess of Merioneth, alias Miss Vivian Vane, is not a very attractive person, and the reader finds his attention flag when the main question appears to be not to discover the guilty person, but to free the masquerading Duchess. The end of the story is brutally horrible, and we are not convinced by the author's production of the real criminal. The book is very sensational, but the reader cannot complain that the title does not give him full warning of this fact.
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