Book Description
1925. Edgar Wallace established his reputation as a writer of detective thrillers, a genre in which he wrote more than 170 books, with the publication of The Four Just Men. This book is a collection of eight short stories presenting his most memorable character, the honorable Mr. J. G. Reeder of the Public Prosecutor's Office in London. The reader will enjoy matching wits with the incomparable Mr. Reeder. Contents: The Poetical Policeman; The Treasure Hunt; The Troupe; The Stealer of Marble; Sheer Melodrama; The Green Mamba; The Strange Case; and The Investors. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Eight Amusing, Enjoyable Mystery Stories - 1925 Vintage
The honorable J. G. Reeder of the Public Prosecutor's Office, London, complete with whiskers, a frock coat, and an old unfurled umbrella, was old fashioned, mild mannered, and decidedly dangerous. Bank robbers, forgers, counterfeiters, and murderers paid a severe penalty for underestimating this stuffy character.

I enjoyed all eight stories in this Dover Publications reprint of The Murder Book of J. G. Reeder (1925). The plots are sometimes a bit farfetched, the endings perhaps contrived, and the characters, especially members of the criminal class, may seem like stereotypes. And yet, Wallace successfully weaves a delightful humor into these clever stories. Like me, some readers may find Mr. Reeder's uncanny ability to place himself in the mind of the criminal to be reminiscent of G. K. Chesterton's famous Father Brown.

Edgar Wallace was an amazingly popular author. It is said that in the 1920s and 1930s, excluding Bibles and textbooks, roughly one in four books read in Great Britain was authored by Edgar Wallace. This king of thrillers published 173 books and 17 plays. As so often happens with extremely successful writers of popular fiction (especially pulp fiction), Edgar Wallace's reputation has faded and he is virtually unknown today.

Nonetheless, the short stories in this collection, The Murder Book of J. G. Reeder, are quite entertaining. These amusingly outdated tales can offer a short respite from the more serious, and often more explicitly brutal, detective and mystery novels so popular today. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

A 100 year old Thriller
Edgar Wallace wrote this novel nearly a hundred years ago. I myself read it about 30 years ago, and enjoyed it immensely. I then went on to build a collection of Edgar Wallace - most of his other works are also superb, though this one is simply outstanding. It is amazing that the book has been reprinted again a 100 years after it was first issued.

It is a story of four persons, who are very upright, and are committed to ensure that people in public life also remain upright. They promise to kill a minister (with prior intimation of time and place), if he passes an unjust law. The story is about how the victim tries to save himself and how the four men ultimately [ fail / succeed ;) ].

The plot is very tight and taut, and the ending is extremely clever. This is a good, clean novel, an excellent thriller. There is no introspection, no soliloquies, no shades of grey. Just pure thrill and fun.

Buy it if you are fortunate enough not to have ever read it!


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Customer Reviews (4)

Captures the essence of Kong in its illustrations
I don't usually buy this type of book, but I saw it on a bargain book table a few years ago and picked it up.King Kong is the greatest monster movie of all time, and this illustrated account of the story looked interesting.In 92 pages, the familiar story of Kong's tragedy is told rather well, and the illustrations are quite good.Browne especially did a great job capturing the emotion and sadness of Kong at the end, lending him a much greater sense of humanity than can be found in the true monster of the story, filmmaker Carl Denham.One thing that could not help but strike me was the way in which Browne depicted Ann Darrow-there are definite similarities to Marilyn Monroe, and one early illustration is a perfect likeness of the blonde bombshell.I also noticed that one illustration of Kong on his abode atop Skull Mountain depicted what looks exactly like a bi-plane in the corner beside a basic V-shaped bird; I don't know if this is a mistake (the corner does closely match that of a later illustration of Kong atop the Empire State Building) but it did jump out at me.

Basically, this is a children's book, although I rather enjoyed it myself.This may not be a wise choice for bedtime reading for a small child (Kong's battles with several prehistoric beasts are vividly illustrated along with the horrors of Kong's escape in New York), but older children should enjoy it.The pictures pretty much tell the story themselves, so a child can enjoy the book even without reading the accompanying text.I think both the story and the illustrations convey an important message about the dangers of greed, one which parents can reinforce in their children by discussing Anthony Browne's King Kong with them.

fascinating,romantic,movie-like,
I would like to know whether this book has already been translated and publlished in Japan. If it's coming in near future, when and which publisher.Thank you. (I have sent 2 other. I skipped my name then)

fascinating,romantic,movie-like,
I would like to know whether this book has already been translated and publlished in Japan. If it's coming in near future, when and which publisher.Thank you. (I have sent 2 other. I skipped my name then)

fascinating,romantic,movie-like,
I would like to know whether this book has already been translated and publlished in Japan. If it's coming in near future, when and which publisher.Thank you. (I have sent 2 other. I skipped my name then) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The White Man's Burden at work
If you are a "politically correct" person, I advise you to avoid this book, and all of Wallace's africa books, to avoid apoplexy. Alas for you, reality - both then and now - is simply not politically correct. (You might avoid Africa, too, if you don't want to get eaten!) For any one still having an open mind, this book provides an illuminating window on the life of a very primitive people, and one view of a practical way to deal with them. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a unique work by the king of thrillers. It is a story of Van Heerden, an ambitious doctor who takes over the world and brings corrosive destruction. It is interesting as the mysterious, one-dimensional, anomalous circumstances and colourful language spell-bind the reader. Moreover it is full of intrigues and excited actions that successfully beguile the one who reads it. Fascinating! ... Read more

Book Description
'It was-but they have been doing lunatic things-what can you expect when a halfwitted weakling like Sidney Telfer is at the head of affairs? They underwrote three concerns last year that no brokerage business would have touched with a barge-pole, and they had to take up the shares. One was a lost treasure company to raise a Spanish galleon that sank three hundred years ago! But what really did happen yesterday morning?'Download Description
'It was-but they have been doing lunatic things-what can you expect when a halfwitted weakling like Sidney Telfer is at the head of affairs? They underwrote three concerns last year that no brokerage business would have touched with a barge-pole, and they had to take up the shares. One was a lost treasure company to raise a Spanish galleon that sank three hundred years ago! But what really did happen yesterday morning?' ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Not Wallace's Best, But Still Amusing
These short stories featuring the unassuming and nerdy J G Reeder are in the vein of better stories featuring Sherlock Holmes, Father Brown, and The Thinking Machine.Each is nicely, if predictably, plotted, and the writing is sometimes fun, but they don't have the narrative snap of Wallace's better work.So: if you like vintage mystery short stories, you may appreciate these, but read some GK Chesterton, AC Doyle and Jacques Futrelle first....

An irritatingly successful detective
A shabby, weak-faced middle-aged man strikes terror in the hearts of criminals. J.G. Reeder, the self confessed "man-with-a-criminal-mind" is most irritating to a reader in the sense that his success is almost guaranteed! Sometimes you feel a little bit sorry for the criminals...

Twisting, thrilling, but nonetheless, a little disappointing. J.G. Reeder (in the service of the Public Prosecutor's Office) is not one who will capture the imagination of most detective fiction fans. ... Read more