The early novels can be said to be quite mediocre, noted as "potboilers" by Thurston Macauley, Byrne's earliest biographer. "Messer Marco Polo" tells the story of the Italian adventurer as told by an Irishman, and "The Wind Bloweth" is a romantic novel of the sea. Both show some highly lyrical passages intermixed with the plain language of real life. With "Blind Raftery", however, the author seems to reinvent the saga style, the prose breaking off into musical verse now and then as it tells the story of a blind poet wandering Ireland and avenging his wife's dishonor. A television opera by Joan Trimble based on the novel was commissioned and broadcast by the BBC in 1957.