'The author has fertile imagination and admirable ingenuity, together with the knack of making his story human, even though far fetched. He converts a colorless, cowardly clerk, through the eating of a mysterious oriental paste, into a ferocious and cunning criminal who changes dull, peaceable Adelaide into a city of excitement and fear. There are eight unaccountable murders within a fortnight. The murderer himself organises a force of special constables, finds an assassin, becomes acclaimed as a public benefactor, and then, in remorse, takes to evangelical preaching and the writing of records of his fearsome deeds.'
Source: 'New Books', The Mail [Adelaide], 1 December 1923, p.29.
