+ Boston Transcript p6 F 25 ’20 300w
“The tale is cheerfully improbable, swift-moving, and very entertaining.”
+ N Y Times 25:71 F 8 ’20 400w + Springf’d Republican p11a Ag 1 ’20 280w
ROWLAND, HENRY COTTRELL. Peddler. il *$1.75 (2½c) Harper
20–15959
The somewhat erratic peddler of the title carried his miscellaneous stock of wares in and on an immense ex-army truck, so that his approach was invariably heralded by a clanging and banging of hardware. In this way he made his entry into the exclusive New England colony where the Kirkland family of four sons and a daughter was justly famous. To the same resort in less spectacular style came a small band of European crooks, who proceeded at once to work silently and effectively along their own original lines of robbery. Not until William Kirkland was accused of the thefts, did the peddler reveal the fact that he was there as a member of the secret police incognito. But when an attempt upon William’s life was made, the peddler was on hand to rescue him and to try to capture the criminals. Altho the result was not satisfactory to him, the others concerned seemed to be quite content, and the bonus which he claimed in the person of Diana Kirkland reconciled him to what he considered his failure. Some of the characters and some of the stolen jewelry figured previously in Mr Rowland’s novel “Duds.”
“Not much characterization, but brisk and interesting.”
+ − Booklist 17:118 D ’20
“It is a rattling tale, full of new complications and exciting incidents. The interest does not flag, the characters are sharply differentiated human beings, and not automata. It is an admirable mystery story.”