The Day of Uniting

by Edgar Wallace

The Day of Uniting features a World War One ace as the lead detective. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

Genres: Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1926

About the author

Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) was a prolific British crime writer, journalist and playwright, who wrote 175 novels, 24 plays, and countless articles in newspapers and journals.

Over 160 films have been made of his novels, more than any other author. In the 1920s, one of Wallace's publishers claimed that a quarter of all books read in England were written by him.

He is most famous today as the co-creator of "King Kong", writing the early screenplay and story for the movie, as well as a short story "King Kong" (1933) credited to him and Draycott Dell. He was known for the J. G. Reeder detective stories, The Four Just Men, the Ringer, and for creating the Green Archer character during his lifetime.

Reviews

[Rick Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

Major characters:

Jimmy Blake, 27, wealthy happy-go-lucky war ace
Gerald Van Roon, Jimmy's cousin, roommate, and scientist
Joe Sennett, foreman at Ponters Ltd.
Delia Sennett, Joe's daughter
Tom Elmers, employee at Ponters Ltd.
John Stamford Chapelle, Prime Minister of England
John Stope-Kendrick, Secretary of State
Walter Maggerson, mathematician and explorer
Lord Harry Weltman, Minister of Defence
Tyrhitt Palythorpe, ex-con, printer of Spice, a scandal sheet

Locale: England

Synopsis: Ponter's Ltd. is a commercial print shop, specializing in scientific texts. They also have a contract printing government documents. One night foreman Joe Sennett catches Tom Elmers fooling around with the type. It is found that someone is sabotaging the books being printed by inserting erroneous or nonsense text after the proofs have been approved. Highly embarrassing.

Jimmy Blake, wealthy happy go lucky war ace, meets and is taken with Delia Sennett; daughter of foreman Joe Sennett. Blake gets an invite from his lodger, Gerald Van Roon, to a dinner of scientific types hosted by Prime Minister Chapelle. At the dinner, explorer Walter Maggerson staggers in begging the PM to stop "The Terror" (but no one knows what "The Terror" is).

Tyrhitt Palythorpe, ex-con and printer of a seamy scandal sheet, tries to lure Tom Elmers away to work for him.

One night Gerald Van Roon is called away, and is soon found dead on the nearby heath. Soon John Stop-Kendrick dies also by his own hand, while running from "The Terror".

Whatever "The Terror" is, it is the main focus of a group of officials who meet at night in a vacant building and engage in a frenzy of activity to stop it.

Review: This is a fun adventure. There are clues throughout as to what The Terror is, so by the time it is revealed you probably have figured it out. It is a clever plot, and the cause of The Terror has a bit of karma in it for the participants, since they pretty much brought it on themselves. It is exciting to read how the panic spreads and the government officials get more and more desperate. Wallace even manages to thread in a love story while everything is falling apart. If you like dark-doings-on-the-moor type of mysteries, this one will not disappoint.

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[Cristian De · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro genial, al principio si te llega a confundir un poco pero tomando el hilo de la Historia se llega a disfrutar enormemente.

[Eduardo Av · Rating 3 out of 5]

El libro empieza lento lo cual me hizo dudar, pero con forme vas avanzando empieza a atraparte, me gustó la historia me pareció creativa y me mantuvo a la expectativa del desenlace.

[Eduardo Garcia-Gaspar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edgar Wallace, autor de la historia de King Kong, fue un célebre escritor del siglo pasado, sumamente prolífico y un tanto olvidado en estos días. Su especialidad son los misterios y los thrillers. Un maestro narrador de historias, que en este caso comienza con una imprenta, su responsable, una hermosa joven, dos primos (uno sabio y el otro ignorante), más un célebre matemático que corre por la calle gritando «¡El terror!», lo que desencadena algunas muertes, reuniones secretas y un divertido desenlace.
Una muy buena lectura, breve y entretenida, propia del gusto de quienes leen a Agatha Christie.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable interaction between the characters. No girls kidnapped this time! Unfortunately, I figured out the ending way ahead of time.

[William Emmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another one by Edgar Wallace that is a murder mystery with a big science fiction info dump at the end. It’s also a political thriller. I must confess that this book has what they call an idiot plot—in particular the characters are constantly revealing and concealing information in stupid ways to keep the story going—but I can’t give this book a bad rating because of how breezy and fun to read it is. Edgar Wallace makes me soft-headed.

[Letichus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Se trata de una novela que mejora a medida que avanzas, llegando a ser alegre y con una intriga curiosa.