Munro published several novels under his own name. Initially he had some success writing historical novels, most of them set in the Highlands and exploring the coming of change in the comparatively recent past. His best-known novels from this phase of his writing career are "John Splendid", set around Montrose's campaign in the First Civil War and his attack on Inveraray, and "Doom Castle", set around the Jacobite rising of 1745, which was dramatised by the BBC in 1980. Later he attempted to expand his range, with more mixed success, writing novels with contemporary settings, including "The Daft Days". In 1914 he returned to a Highland historical setting with the last and best-known of his novels, "The New Road", dramatised by the BBC in 1973.