As The Gentlemanfrom Indiana begins, the author describes Carlow County as a passenger on a train would see it as he passes through, "flat lonesomeness, miles on miles." He then takes the reader into Platville, the county seat, and convinces him with skillful descriptions, full of local color, that it is a region which a perceptive visitor might come to love. It is unspoiled and quite removed from the intense competition and industrialization which had become commonplace in post-Civil War America. This is why John Harkless, for all his sophistication, has chosen to work here.

Like the descriptive passages, the plot is effectively handled. Enough action and suspense are provided to sustain the reader's attention throughout the novel. The first half of the book shows Harkless as the crusading newspaper editor, and initiates the love story. Almost exactly in the middle of the book, the editor disappears. He...