Crockett tells the story of Roy McCulloch, a rural ploughman but this is more than an 'idyll' of times past. The fast paced murder mystery delves into land ownership and legal precedent and keeps the reader guessing to the very end of the tale.

His inventiveness does not yet begin to show any sign of exhaustion and his hand has lost nothing of its cunning. He justifies the belief Oliver Wendell Holms has somewhere expressed, that the more an author writes the more he can write. Every page of the book is full of movement and incident, and never flags until the happy ending of it all is reached. The old dominie is an excellent bit of character drawing. The story is ingeniously contrived; it is written with wonderful freshness and vigour.

Roy McCulloch, the rural ploughman known as 'Strong Mac' is a truly great rural character. The supporting cast in this rural murder mystery come adventure romance are every bit as well drawn and there is both a page turning plot and much interesting detail of contemporary Scottish life to satisfy any reader.