OPPENHEIM, EDWARD PHILLIPS. Devil’s paw. il *$1.90 (3c) Little
20–16858
Miss Catherine Abbeway, the heroine of the story, is a wonderful woman. By birth half Russian and half English and an aristocrat, her sympathies are entirely with the oppressed and with labor. She belongs to a secret labor organization whose object it is to bring about an early peace with the Central powers. Of this organization or council all but two, and they the leaders, are honest men. The two are scoundrels in the pay of Germany. Catherine undertakes, at great personal risk, to intercept messages from alleged German socialists for the council. Julian Orden, son of a peer, and anonymous author of peace articles that are creating a stir, discovers her in the act and takes the documents from her. But, to protect her in a compromising situation, he proclaims her his fiancée. Later when, after some breathless days, Catherine has discovered the sinister plot of the pseudo labor leaders and has saved England and the Allies from disaster, the pretense becomes fact.
“One of his poorer stories.”
+ − Booklist 17:118 D ’20
“The novel is not without ingenuity, and contains one or two fairly dramatic scenes; but it is not so entertaining a story as ‘The great impersonation.’”
+ − N Y Times p25 O 3 ’20 550w
“‘The devil’s paw’ is far from being his best work.”
− Outlook 126:334 O 20 ’20 60w