Although The Matchlock Gun is a tale of adventure, suspense, and violence, Edmonds's prose is never choppy or exaggerated but instead exhibits the fluidity and lyricism of poetry. Edmonds contrasts sensuous descriptions of the Van Alstynes' warm, secure family life with ominous images of impending peril.

When the children go to bed in the loft, for example, Edmonds presents a cozy domestic scene: The two children slept together in the loft room...where the smoked hams made a scent in the darkness....The loft was warm from the all-day fire in the chimney....Above the roof, the wind hooted softly in the chimney mouth: the sound brought a sense of the cold and wet beyond the thickness of roof-board and shingle.

The chapter "In the Loft" ends, however, with foreshadowing of violence; what earlier seemed cozy and familiar now seems oppressive and frightening.

Although the children...