The NEW YORK SUN says:
"Frederick R. Burton has supplied us with a cleverly constructed and interesting story in 'The Mission of Poubalov.' ... In regard to Mr. Burton's Russian police agent, we hasten to say that he has commended himself to us as both reasonable and interesting. As we remember, he does not once put himself to the conventional trouble of assuming a disguise, and yet he gets on remarkably well. Just as curiously, his business in New York is not to administer the vengeance of the Czar, but to do a kindly and charitable deed. The ordinary reader will be at no pains to discover and appreciate certain plain points about this story. It is a story with a plot, and the narrative is conscientiously and cleverly accomplished. Mr. Burton understands perfectly that very valuable principle of the storyteller's art whereby the curiosity of the reader is quickly aroused, duly maintained, and finally gratified. His police agent is a vigorous figure, and his heroine enjoys the distinction of being able to face some other aspect than that of lachrymose despair. She is an excellent heroine, a good talker and a sensible, clever person, and we cordially congratulate Mr. Burton upon her presence in his book. So we do congratulate him upon a generally capable and interesting story."
From THE BOSTON HERALD.
"The style of the story is not unlike that of the 'Mr. Barnes of New York' series, and the handling of mystery very nearly approaches Anna Katharine Green's dexterity.
Ingenious in plot, exciting in incident, and sensational enough even for warm summer afternoons, the volume teems with interest. The characters stand boldly forward in a drama that moves breathlessly along without a break to mar its smoothness, or to interrupt the clews relating to the sudden disappearance of a lover upon his wedding day, within an hour of the ceremony. Aside from this, the story is a singular instance of the constancy and faith of a woman who is worth loving. She spends her energy in trying to discover her lover, not in tears over his apparent desertion. Real power in a detective story is shown in keeping the mystery veiled until the end, and this Mr. Burton has done."
From THE CHICAGO DAILY NEWS.
"His story is of the sensational style—sensational in a clean and wholesome way—and proves the author has surmounted the first difficulties which usually attack the man who attempts to write a 'detective story.' There are no hitches or flagging of interest in spots, the plot is coherent and sufficiently intricate to cause a reader to sit up late to finish the tale, and the finale—that bunker at which ignominiously tumble most sensational writers—is logical and not to be quarreled with. Nothing puts a reader in such bad humor with his author as to be let down flat after an exciting chase. Mr. Burton sends one off on a sky rocket, perfectly satisfied.
Poubalov, who in the title arouses recollections of Gilbert Parker's or Mary Hartwell Catherwood's field of work, is that melodramatic character, a polished, impregnable, invincible, all-powerful, diabolical, Russian secret-service official.... Mr. Burton, if he improves, will rank with the best writers of exciting tales."