In the novel The Man in the Brown Suit, Reeves is a passenger onboard the Kilmorden Castle. When Sir Eustace Pedler's secretary Guy Pagett became ill with a headache, Sir Eustace invited Reeves to join him at his table.
Sir Eustace found Reeves "a quaint little fellow" and a "[H]orrible little man" but Reeves was a prominent member of the South Africa Labour Party and Sir Eustace wanted to cultivate a good relationship with him because Reeves was a valuable source of information on the labour situation, the strikes and the unrest taking place on the Rand--something he wanted to study.