In 1905 Freeman published his first solo novel, "The Golden Pool", with the background drawn from his own time in West Africa. The hero is a young Englishman who steals a fetish treasure. Barzun and Taylor make the point that while this is a crime, the book is not regarded as crime fiction as "according to old notions" stealing things from African natives "is no crime". Bleiler says "it is a colorful, thrilling story, all the more unusual in being ethnographically accurate . . . " and that ". . . it used to be required reading for members of the British colonial services in Africa."