AustLit

'THE secret invention of an almost invisible aeroplane is the cause of this exciting spy yarn, and a particularly suave and particularly ruthless agent of an unspecified European country keeps it moving. An old friend, Gilbert Larose, in the role of a secret service agent, however, proves equally as ruthless and even more cunning, so the honors are satisfying. Murder and kidnapping help the foreign agent to secure the prized formula for making the material for the plane, but his seemingly faultless disguises and alibis are easily penetrated by Larose. There are many moments of anxiety, but a villain must never succeed in his dastardly plots — in fiction.'

Source:

'Bodleian'. 'Leaves from the Latest Books', The Mail, 21 August 1937, p.27.

'The plot Is simple: A popular man, but a notorious gambler, was murdered in the billiard room of a baronet's county house, on the morning after the Goodwood races. The crime looked simple of solution, but soon the local police could not say whether it was an inside or outside crime. Then Larose arrived. He met what looked like a conspiracy of silence, but soon found that probably a dozen persons had good cause to commit the murder, and that any one of them might be guilty. Bit by bit he gathered his clues, and when his inquiries were growing dangerous he was shot, being severely wounded. Fate played a part with two conspirators, but Larose later continued his investigations, and the author reaches an unusual, unexpected, but legitimate denouement, one that will set the reader thinking about the clues that he has overlooked. They are all here, but few will pick the man who committed the murder.'

Source:

'The Judgement of Larose', Sunday Mail, 17 June 1934, p.9.

'People who disappear, either from choice or compulsion, usually leave behind some trace, some thread or other, which an astute detective can seize on and follow to a logical conclusion. No such convenient clue was to be found in the case of the disappearance of four villagers from the little hamlets on the Suffolk coast of England. When Gilbert Larose, the Australian detective, was put on the case, not only was the trail cold, but there was not a shred of evidence to show that there had ever been a trail at all. The men had simply vanished into thin air. But in his usually entertaining and unassuming manner, Larose scents a major mystery, and. with the unswerving assurance of the black tracker, is soon just a step or two behind the criminals.'

Source:

'The Hidden Door', The Advertiser, 9 August 1934, p.156.

'[D]etectives with international reputations work with some of the most notorious criminals to unearth a gang of racketeers.'

Source:

'Equal to Edgar Wallace's Best', Advertiser, 9 August 1932, p.4.