WILLIAMSON, CHARLES NORRIS, and WILLIAMSON, ALICE MURIEL (LIVINGSTON) (MRS CHARLES NORRIS WILLIAMSON). Second latchkey. il *$1.60 (2c) Doubleday
20–7290
Annesley Grayle meets the man who calls himself Nelson Smith under romantic circumstances and marries him without knowing his real name or anything about him. As paid companion to a crabbed old lady she has found life dreary and colorless. He brings love and joy into it and she adores him and asks no questions. Shortly after it becomes apparent to the reader that the man is a very clever jewel thief. The heroine however is slower witted and when the truth is forced home to her she is crushed and believes her love dead. There follows a period of estrangement and penitence spent on the hero’s ranch in Texas, followed by reconciliation.
“A tale of plot, whose surprises and thrills are never balked by the improbable.”
+ Booklist 16:315 Je ’20
“The Williamsons have succeeded in concentrating our entire interest in their plot, and though—as is natural in this type of story—we should not be likely to read the book a second time, it is equally likely that we should be inclined to read the next Williamson book upon the recommendation of this.” D. L. M.
+ Boston Transcript p11 My 22 ’20 550w
“The authors have not allowed a trifle like probability to stand in their way, but the tale holds the reader’s interest, and Annesley is a charming heroine. Smoothly and pleasantly written, ‘The second latchkey’ is an agreeable and an entertaining romance of things as they are not.”
+ − N Y Times 25:219 My 2 ’20 500w