Other American novelists have made effective use of the details of
commercial life as material for their work, but it has, we believe,
been left to the authors of _White Ashes_ to introduce into a story
the exciting elements of the fire insurance business. The dramatic
possibilities of a great conflagration have, of course, often before
been realised by authors, but not as in the present novel, where they
are worked out from the point of view of the underwriter. The story
moves rapidly, with business intrigues, plots and counterplots, and a
compelling love interest.