This was the first of a succession of nine novels by McKeown / Giles on the social, pastoral and political life of the Boers.
'The crime motif in this novel is based on racial conflicts in South Africa, chiefly between black and white, and partly between the Boers and the English. The colour bar in marriage, expressed through heredity, breaks in upon the peace of a group of Boer farmers who are out of sympathy with the administration of justice. The plot traces the process of crime detection in a Dutch rural community.' (Miller, 1940, p 717)
