The Four Just Men (Oxford Popular Fiction): Amazon.co.uk: Edgar Wallace, David Glover: Books

Review

The Four Just Men is the unabridged audiobook adaptation of a tautly written thriller following four mysterious, wealthy Europeans, each a master of disguise and deception, who seek to deliver justice when police and governments cannot. Operating outside the law, they are ruthless and exacting in their dedication. A classic and enduring work brought to life with the skilled narration professional actor Bill Homewood, The Four Just Men is especially recommended for public library audiobook collections. - --The Audiobook Shelf, Midwest Book Review

Starred Review Fans of classic mysteries and thrillers will rejoice in Homewood's superb reading of Wallace's brief but dramatic tale (published in 1905), which pits the eponymous men against those invoking political injustice. The four wealthy Europeans warn Britain s foreign secretary that unless he removes support for an extradition bill (jeopardizing the safety of a Spanish activist who sought political asylum in England), he is their next target. The men have successfully assassinated important world figures before, so this is not an empty threat. All of England waits for the outcome as the police seek these vigilantes, who dare to take justice into their own hands. In contrast to many characters in contemporary mysteries, these men are enigmas, leaving Homewood to perform a clever locked-room mystery (with the ingenious murder of a man thought to be protected by the police) that relies more heavily on atmosphere than the characters backgrounds. Homewood assigns the men distinctive accents (English; Spanish, including a Castilian lisp; French) and cadences that reflect their civilized, cosmopolitan personalities. He also voices a cacophony of regional accents that represent Parliament members, police officers, and numerous Londoners involved in discussions as the clock ticks down to the deadline imposed by the men. Homewood darkens his deep voice to create a moody, menacing atmosphere that dominates this compelling story, and he modulates pace and intensity to dramatize ruthless justice. Those who enjoy smart, civilized mysteries will be pleased. --Joyce Saricks, Booklist

This fast-moving little story and its accomplished reader takes the theme of vigilante justice out of this current polished, slick, technology-dependent world and brings it back to a simpler, more black-and-white one. featured in SoundCommentary's 'Best Audiobooks of 2011' list - --Joanna Theiss, SoundCommentary

Edgar Wallace was one of the early thriller writers, known to us more from the movies than his books. In his Four Just Men series, the villains are four men who practise vigilante law. While their actions are outside the law, which one cannot approve of, there is a certain sympathy for their actions. Read with perfection by Bill Homewood, the first in the unabridged Naxos AudioBooks Classic Crime series of that title takes us to the London of 1905, where the police hunt four men determined to right wrong with violence. --Alide Kohlhaas, Seniors Review --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Product Description

The Four Just Men , first published in 1905, was the novel that made Edgar Wallace famous as a writer of detective thrillers. A Spanish resistance leader's safety in England is threatened by the passage through Parliament of the Aliens Extradition Bill. The minister responsible receives a message from four mysterious figures, `The Four Just Men', warning him that he faces death unless he withdraws the legislation. Edgar Wallace maintains the suspense and excitement as the police struggle to protect the minister before the deadline imposed by the conspirators is reached. Included in this edition is the later novel, The Council of Justice , which forms a sequel. This book is intended for general; fans of Edgar Wallace; students and teachers on fiction courses that cover popular fiction.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

5 star

4 star

3 star

2 star

1 star

8 reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars

Write a customer review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

Famous series opener 6 Sep 2009

By Officer Dibble VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Four Spanish men are conducting a sort of worldwide moral crusade. Their next target is the British Foreign Minister whose legislation against asylum seekers will force 'good' revolutionaries/terrorists to face certain death in their former homelands. By the way this is Edwardian England in case you are confused.

The 'Four' use methods which are so Byzantine to achieve their ends that Mr Wallace even offered a reward to anyone who could work out the 'locked room' solution. Well, Good Luck because I didn't even get close although so many did in 1905 that his publisher had to bail him out!

This is no great work of literature. It is only 106 pages long and is published here with its sequel 'The Council of Justice'. The Minister sums this up when he says, 'the atmosphere is, for all the world, like that of a melodrama'. It cracks along with reality thrown out of the window bordering on a Boys Own story.

It is reminiscent of the Fantomas series which was begun in France only five years later and both achieved quite staggering popularity. With two books in one and a good quality introduction and bibliography this is good value. Accept it for what it is and have some fun.

Comment |

Was this review helpful to you?

Yes

Edgar Wallace v The Saint 6 July 2008

By James Fleming

In the 1950's I read most of The Saint books and about 90 Edgar Wallace ones. From this you will gather that I liked the Saint books and am not trying to put them down. The Saint has to be a charismatic figure to sell the books. Edgar Wallace's characters do not need the same detailed description because it is the cleverness of the plot, which sells the books. I have just started to read them again. While I give this book 5 stars I prefer Room 13 and I prefer JG Reeder to the Four Just Men themselves but this is a matter of taste.
I recommend Edgar Wallace to Amazon customers.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful

The maestro of the possible impossible crime 5 Aug 2001

By A Customer

Many years before some members of the Detection Club claimed the concept of "fair play" as an innovation of their own and as something diametrically opposed to thrillers (whose unchallenged master was Edgar Wallace), E.W. set out a locked room mystery within a thriller framework, giving the readers all the necessary clues to solve the enigma by themselves. Wallace wrote it burdened with debts. Simultaneously, Jacques Futrelle undertake a similar task with his short story "The Problem of Cell 13" ... Both writers offered a cash prize to those readers who were clever enough to solve the respective enigmas. Jacques Futrelle's story is very clever and entertaining, but his characters are childish caricatures. The plot of 'The Four Just Men' is a concatenation of episodes which essentially could be summarized as a novella, but the dynamism, sparkling wit and subtle humour of the narrative make the book quite readable today. Some skeptical minds found the solution technically unfeasible, but an unfortunate event that took place a short time after the book publication (1905) forced them to admit their crass mistake: a man was prosecuted in Brazil for a murder committed with the same modus operandi as the one used in the assassination imagined by Wallace. It's a realistic solution, too clever to seem real, too simple to seem clever. That's the basic difference between the simplicity of the genius and the abstruseness of the willing worker. Most of the impossible crime mysteries are just that: impossible. Impossible to commit, impossible to believe and, in quite a few cases, impossible to read. They are bookish and far-fetched. Their solutions are full of providential coincidences, and their complex detection, veneered of intellectualism, is just a waffle to hide the mediocrity of the solution. That's not the case with Edgar Wallace. He was not intellectual; he didn't need it: he was a genius. He demonstrated it in real life...

Juan Santisteban, BA in English Studies from the University of Salamanca, Spanish translator and editor of the "Colección Edgar Wallace".