Hornung 's prose is widely admired for its lucid @-@ yet @-@ simple style . Oliver Edwards , writing in The Times , considered that " not the least attractive part of the Raffles books is the simple , plain , unaffected language in which each one of them is written " . The obituarist in the same newspaper agree , and think Hornung had " a power of good and clear description and a talent for mystery and surprise " . Colin Watson also consider the point , and observe that in Hornung 's writing , " superfluous description have been avoided and account of action is to the point " , while Doyle admired his " sudden use of the right adjective and the right phrase " , something the writer and journalist Jeremy Lewis see as a " flamboyant , Kiplingesque taste for the vivid " .