York; he
knows excursion boats such as the Ernestina, whose cruises play so curious
a part in _The Deaves Affair_. I have a whetted appetite for what Footner
will give us next; I feel sure it will be like no other story of the
season. A great deal to be sure of!

=v=

The peculiarity about _Gold-Killer_ is the mystery behind the excellent
mystery of the book. I mean, of course, the mystery of its authorship. I
do not any longer believe that the book is the work of Siamese twins--in a
physiological sense of the word "twins." I know that there is no John
Prosper--or, rather, that if there is a John Prosper, he is not the author
of _Gold-Killer_. Yet the book was the work of more than one man. Were two
intellects siamesed to write the story? Those who, in my opinion, know the
facts point to the name on the title page and say that John is John and
Prosper is Prosper and never the twain shall meet, unless for the purpose
of evolving a super-_Gold-Killer_. Whether they will be able to surpass
this book, which opens with a murder at the opera and finishes
(practically) with a nose dive in an airplane, is beyond my surmise.

If they will try, I give them my word I will read the new yarn.

Mrs. Baillie Reynolds's latest novel is called _The Judgment of Charis_.
It is not a story to tell too much about in advance. I will say that
Charis had run away from an all-too-persistent lover and an
all-too-gorgeous family, and had been taken under the wing of a kindly,
middle-aged millionaire and invited to become his secretary. She expected
some complications and in her expectations she was not disappointed; and
the readers' expectations will not be disappointed either, though they may
find the ending unexpected. _The Vanishing of Betty Varian_ restored to
readers of Carolyn Wells a detective whose appearance in _The Room with
the Tassels_ made that story more than ordinarily worth while. I do not
know, though, whether Penny Wise would be interesting or even notable if
it were not for his curious assistant, Zizi. The merit of detective
stories is necessarily variable; _The Vanishing of Betty Varian_ is one of
the author's best; but Miss Wells (really Mrs. Hadwin Houghton) is, to me,
as extraordinary as her stories. All those books! She herself says that
"having mastered the psychology of detachment" she can write with more
concentration and less revision than any other professional writer of her
acquaintance. Yes, but how---- No doubt