DECREES IN CRIME.

Otago Witness, Issue 3755, 2 March 1926, Page 78

DECREES IN CRIME.

“ A Miscarriage of Justice.” By Charles Kingston. (Paper, 2s net.) London: Stanley Paul and Co. William Cheddle, alias “ Bill Smith,” is sentenced to death for the murder of Sir Henry Ditton when really he is guilty only of burglary. He had served in the Great War. His wife and daughter believed that he had fallen in battle, whereas he had really deserted and been convicted under a wrong name. Returning to his old village when released from his latest sentence for housebreaking, he reads the name of Private William Cheddle with those of other fallen soldiers on the local war memorial. Here is memory is honoured, and his wife and daughter it with fond pride, so he determines not to make himself known. A starving tramp tells him that the neighbouring hall, residence of Sir Henry, offers an opportunity of easily securing rich booty, and asks his assistance in the enterprise. He performs his part, and leaving the house with a comfortable sum of money runs into the arms of a smart young policeman, who fills the role of hero in the story. To his utter amazement he finds himself charged with the murder of the baronet, whose body lias been found stabbed to the heart. His confederate eludes search, and representatives of the law discredit the existence of a confederate. Stephen Passom, the young policeman who has received promotion owing to his smart arrest of the supposed murderer, is deeply impressed by the story Bill Smith tells in court, and fears that he has aided in sending the wrong man to the gallows. He determines to devote himself to discovering whether the condemned man’s story is true. Through a humane Home Secretary the sentence is commuted to penal servitude for life, which gives time for Rassoin’s investigations, in the course of which the criminal’s identity with William Cheddle comes to light. Rassom is in love with Alice Cheddle, and is now more than ever bent on establishing Cheddle’s innocence of the murder charge, but is troubled by the necessary revelation to wife and daughter of the discreditable latter chapters in the record of the accredited war herd? A surprising development is Rassom’s discovery of the missing “Jack Brown” of the accused man’s story in the person of the new baronet, nephew of the murder°d man. Finally a conclusion in accordance with the reader’s sympathies is arrived at. The plot is developed in a natural way, the narration is straightforward. Altogether the story is a fair specimen of its class.