Three Men and a Maid

By all accounts this tale by Robert Fraser is such an ingenious and absorbing and tantalizing mystery story as one finds only rarely. The scene is laid in a remote Yorkshire village, and the action hinges on the rivalry of three men for the love of one Marjorie Neyland, an innkeeper's handsome daughter, admitted by unprejudiced readers to be not a whit less lovely than the three rivals think her. There is, of course, a country Squire, and this gentleman is blessed with a singularly vile rogue of a kinsman. There is, also, equally of course, a vicar. This vicar has a nephew. A couple of precious scoundrels engaged in the malpractice of the law and a detective of a very superior brand furnish, with a wicked young woman, the rest of the book's company. The very wicked young woman is the sister of the heroine and is, like her handsome. The charm of the story lies, however, chiefly in the diabolical ingenuity discovered by Mr. Fraser in leading you off on false scents--and not only you--but his own superior sleuth. -- New York Times Book Review