Eleanor Hallowell Abbott

(from publisher's newspaper advertisment blurb)

This is the story of Mrs. Tome Callien, a tremendously wealthy, keen-minded, sharp-tongued, bed-ridden woman, who is always sending presents broadcast, and whose dearest wish is this: "That the last mail of the day may never leave me utterly letterless -- and that I may always be expecting a package by express."

It is also the story of Solvei Kjellend, who says herself that she is "young and strong, and very laughing;" and of Dr. Sam Kendrue, who is as tall and young and handsome as Solvei, as brunette as she is blonde, as grim as she is effervescent and vivid.

About these and some subordinate characters the author of "Molly Make-Believe" weaves another of those whimsical, sparkling, laughing romances that have endeared her to so many hundred thousand readers.

[from Review in The National Magazine, 1918, Vol 47, page 284]

In "The Ne'er Do Much," Eleanor Hallowell Abbott has even surpassed her own reputation for stories of an unusual nature. Within the one hundred and forty-four small-size big-print pages she introduces a South American millionaire who gave a dinner to which he invited only celebrities "he wished he knew": an old man, a young girl, a young woman and a young man. With the four latter-named persons the story particularly deals. They are unacquainted, and, to make conversation, decide to tell their troubles to one another, drawing secret "lots" to determine which shall tell true troubles and which purely fictional.

At the conclusion, many of the mysteries are cleared up, but the author maintains the element of uncertainty even then by leaving the young woman's status and relation to the story still unrevealed.

Entertaining and diverting is "The Ne'er-Do-Much," a book with which to spend a very pleasant few moments.