Between 1935 and 1950, Rowland produced twenty-one detective novels, most featuring his series-sleuth, Inspector (later Chief Inspector) Henry Shelley of Scotland Yard, nineteen of which were published by Herbert Jenkins. Interestingly, when deciding what to call his lead detective, he used his own middle names. As well as crime fiction, he produced books on true crime, scientific subjects and biographies, including, among others, ones about Ernest Rutherford, Marie Curie and George Stephenson. Until quite recently Rowland was largely forgotten as a writer of the latter part of the Golden Age, then a couple of his books were published by the British Library in their Crime Classics imprint with introductions by Martin Edwards, leading to a reappraisal and increased interest in his work.