SOME RECENT FICTION.

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 199, 11 May 1918, Page 11

SOME RECENT FICTION.

j "Monsieur Lecoctj." . Jt must bo close on half a century sineo Lmilo Gaboriau wrote tho first and moat famous of his detective stories, "Monsieur Lecocq." which was followed by a long series of equally sensational and eminently readable novels in the samt< genre. To-day the number of novelists who write "detective" fiction is legion, but it is s'till a caso of "Eclipso first and tho rest nowhore." GaWiau is still supreme, although his methods may havo been ingeniously varied, as, for instance, by Coiian Doyle. A cheap complete edition of Gaboriau's novels has long been wanted, for years ago tho Vizetelly edition of thoso famous tales went out 'of print. It is to be hoped, therefore, that Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton's new edition (25.) of "Monsieur Lecocq," a copy of which is just to hand from tho publishers, will bo followed in duo course by "Tho Further Adventures of Monsieur Lecocq," and tlio fifteen or twenty other stories associated with Gaboriau's name. To tho present generation of novel readers these ingeni-ously-planned and vivaciously-told stories must bo comparatively unknown. The opening story I havo read with just as much pleasure as I had—well, a great many years ago—and I shall. anjSbusly await the publication of tho sequel.