In "Hostile Valley," Mr. Williams turns his facile hand to a tale of country folk in an isolated valley. His plot concerns the effect of one personality in disrupting an otherwise peaceful community and of the love of Jenny Pierce for Will Ferrin.

The disrupting element is Huldy ferrin, a "hussy" according to Marm Pierce, whom will Ferrin has found on one of his trips to the city. It is to be regretted that Mr. Williams did not lay more emphasis on his delineation of Huldy, for the brief strokes with which he has painted her arouse great interest and are executed with an apparently unconscious brilliancy. The reader gets a brief glance at a woman with sleepy eyes who would "rather be wanted than needed". Who "was vicious, beyond doubt; yet--there were not the marks of vice upon her, but rather of abounding life and deep undisciplined vitality."

Jenny simple, loyal plays a waiting game while the troublous forces which Huldy's arrival have not in motion work themselves out. She lives with Marm Pierce who speaks the philosophy of the rural community and dispenses cures and "yarbs." The atmosphere of the lazy, rural community is created easily: Sometimes the reader is almost irritated by the deliberate simplicity with which Mr. Williams has written his story.

There is a climactic murder, cross-examination and an impassive criminal that rivals any fast-moving courtroom scene in a modern play. On the whole, "Hostile valley" does not aim at any particular effect. Writing casually, the author creates his atmosphere, sketches in his characters, works them into a simple plot that can include his murder mystery denouncement and thus aims to strike upon at least one element that will held the interest of the average reader.