The Book Gourmet
Book reviews à la bookworm...The good, the bad, and everything in between.
The Joker by Edgar Wallace
There's something fishy about millionaire Stratford Harlow, yet the police and Scotland Yard are unable to pin anything on him, despite the efforts of Sub-Inspector James Carlton...
An interesting plot-line with a better pacing than its predecessor. The "villain" was much more in the open, although the reader, alongside Scotland Yard's finest, struggles to see what he is up to and how anybody can prove any wrongdoing.
And when you think it's over, and everything becomes rather long-winded and slightly dull (especially compared to the few chapters where the reader and Jim believe the worst), comes the surprising final twist, revealing the greatest Harlow "joke" of them all.
I certainly didn't see that one coming. Well done.
