Black Abbot

GREAT BOOK!! This editor LOVED it and could not put it down (which led to a very weary day after).

They say the ghost of the Black Abbot has been seen near the old abbey, and Cartwright the grocer claims to have seen it too. Meanwhile Harry Alford, eighteenth Earl of Chelford is engaged to Leslie Gine, sister of Arthur, solicitor and gambler with the family fortune. The Earl had originally asked his secretary Mary Wenner to be his bride, but his half brother Richard intervened to stop the marriage. Plotting revenge, Mary proposes she and Arthur marry. Her dowry, she insists, will be fifteen tons of Spanish gold - the missing Chelford treasure. goodread member: 3 STARS According to the records of the Chelford family, the owners of the Fossaway Manor, an enormous treasure in gold ingots had been buried somewhere in the grounds during Queen's Elizabeth time. The lord of the manor is a mono-maniac; his attorney a passionate gambler who has lost his sister's fortune as well as his own. Into the maze of cross-purposes and desperateness at the Manor, in these modern days of electric light and motor cars, enters the Black Abbott again, terrifying the people of the estate and the countryside. Who the Black Abbott is -- and how he is connected with the mystery of the treasure -- these are the elements of the story.

goodread member: 4 stars because I didn't have that WOW in the end. I mean I kinda got it myself, who the bad man was, two or three chapters before it was revealed. Still, a solid British-style mystery thriller. Wallace pace is rapid, you get quite involved in the story. I have to say, i expected more of a murder mystery, i was reading thinking how is going to be murdered, then i got a bit frustrated, because nobody got murdered. Was more of a thriller thing. Still great and re-comforting reading. Cant wait to my next Wallace (ein Schriftsteller für Zwischendurch)

goodread member: 4 stars. The book is an interesting mystery with some romantic elements though no character is especially likeable. It was interesting to see how the gold bug infected all the characters and then to watch them work at cross purposes.

goodread member: 4 stars. Excellent Edgar Wallace mystery. Hidden treasure (with admittedly a blatantly obvious clue), a mysterious ghostly monk and lots of intrigue. Not really a crime novel although there is a murder, this is a rip roaring old fashioned thriller. Wallace at his best.