New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-08-08
BOSTON, LTTRARY SENSATION

written In Red " is the title of IA serial r0-
nance the first instament of which is Soon TO
appear in q Boston newspaper. There never
WAS story like it, remarks it's advance agent
And we presume lie is right-at all events, we
hope So For the account which is given of what
L" Written In Red is 10 be like demonstrates that
the public could hardly stand another novel OF
the sort without bracing up on raw brandy dashed
with red pepper. In Written In Red sensation
alism Of IL unique sort is 10 have full swing, The
very fullest 50 that the most gorgeous of the hve-
ring circus posters in comparison Will seem really
transformations. In fact, if this creation OF gen.
iuses-it took two 10 do it-dOes not turn out TO
be sort of literary iimjams, people who peruse
what the advance agent has 10 tell about IL may
we'll feel that they have been cruelty deceived.
" Written In Red"-and the very name suggests
the extremely rampant relaxation known as pant
ing the town that color-iS Il detective story.
But not of the ordinary brand Of detective yarns
bless your soul, no. The advance agent explains
that the authors after determining the facts OF
the crime with which the story starts, wrote the
first chapter, relating the discovery OF the body
Of Paul North aud then submitted it to expert
Boston detectives exactly as II IL were a real
cru,p II is not quite clear from this whether
H. WAS the first chapte or the body of the late
Mr. North which was passed around; but it does
no. make any difference which IL was. The
crucial fact is that real genuine, concrete Boston
detectives as distinguished from the purely nebu-
ois theoretical detectives that attend the Concord
School OF Philosophy and spend their leisure look
ing for Jack the Ripper kindly assisted the au-
thors OF Written In Red 1t is added thai
the detectives went 10 work upon IT AS II IT
were rea' There you have it-real detectives
putting real professional work upon the real hrst
chapter or upon the body Of the deceased Paul
North. What could be more realistic?
But this is not all of the novel senSationalsm
Of this thrilling work. When the detectives got
fairly TO work on Paul being conscientious work
ers, they desired the testimony of expert phys-
clans And this the urbane and generous authors
provided We are informed that such testimony
was furnished from among the most learned
medical men of Boston, What wierdly inter
estng sight it must have been-those real detect
ives and those real doctors corrugating their real
objective brows over all that was mortal of Paul
North. And Sensatonalism is TO govern the pub
lcation of Written in Red" The advance agent
states that the secret woven around Mr.. Norths
dead body will not be revealed until the last
chapter and that the last chapter will be delayed
II week two after the publication of the rest OF
the work in order to give readers chance to
guess it. " The person who makes the deduction
most nearly correct will receive reward OF
5000 or if two or more persons make equally good
deductions from the evidence the money will be
divided between them"
In view of all this, hasty generazerS who have
expressed tie opinion that Boston was no longer
The literary centre which it was will see the
necessity of eating their words. Boston may not
be as passionately devoted to art for-ars-Sake as
formerly, but its genius for art for
ihriftS sake will be made apparent by
Written In Red There is thing that
bothers us about the lovely coming publication,
and although it is ungracious 10 crticse where
there is so much TO admire, we will venture TO
mention it, Why We're the Boston cOroners
ignored Why not a picked delegation Of
them invited TO sit upon the body of Paul North
after preliminary reading of the first chapter
The omission is certainly an extraordinary one,
and since the Boston cOrOners a sensitive high
spirited body of men, they can be depended upon
IA resent IT,