Riassunto
Riassunto di La camera n. 13
A chi è rivolto
Readers who enjoy quick crime plots, gentleman rogues, forgers and double dealing, and who like wit in their thrillers, in the spirit of early twentieth century London detective fiction with clubs, slang and one very odd investigator.
Che cos’è questo libro
Room 13 is a crime novel by Edgar Wallace, who wrote fast, wrote often and knew the London underworld of his day. It was published in the years after the First World War. It follows Johnny Gray, a gentleman who has served time in Dartmoor Prison, and the girl he loves, Marney Kane. Their lives are caught in an old feud between two safecrackers who once robbed a ship together.
The book gives you a chase through clubs, hotels, country houses and prison yards. At its centre sits a forger known only as the Big Printer, whose banknotes fool experts. Against him stand a loyal ex-burglar, a hard Scotland Yard man and a gentle, shabby investigator who talks about chickens and flowers. The chapters are short, the dialogue is quick and the slang of the underworld is explained as it goes.
You will meet a wedding that is a trap, a train tunnel, a secret club and a dinner table set for danger. Every scene carries a question about who really knows what. Let us start where the book starts, at the gates of Dartmoor, with a prisoner counting the months.
In questo riassunto
- 1A prisoner learns to wait and watchFree
- 2Freedom arrives one day too late
- 3The bridegroom has a name Johnny knows
- 4Johnny plays his cards against the Legges
- 5A wedding night becomes a hunt
- 6An alibi, a double and a gentle stranger
- 7Reeder sets the board, and Emanuel sets a table
- 8What the story is really about
- 9How the story is told
Punto chiave 1 di 9
A prisoner learns to wait and watch
The story opens at Dartmoor, under a stone archway carved with a Latin motto about sparing the defeated. Johnny Gray works on a bricklaying party with an old lifer named Lal Morgon. Johnny is serving three years for a racecourse swindle in which one horse was secretly swapped for another. He says he knew nothing of the switch, and he accepts his sentence without appeal for a reason he keeps to himself.
Morgon loves to gossip, and the gossip is useful. He tells Johnny about Emanuel Legge, a convict who once broke into a ship's strong room with Peter Kane and got away with a fortune in American money. Peter was never caught. Legge was, after he shot a policeman, and he blames Peter for it. His son Jeff is said to be the Big Printer, the biggest maker of forged money in the world.
Johnny has seen Jeff only once and never met him. Yet he is sure Jeff was the man who set him up and then turned him in. He cannot see why. His best guess is revenge, because he is fond of Peter Kane.
In his cell at night, Johnny looks at a photograph of his fox terrier, Spot, and thinks about Marney, Peter's daughter. Her letters have stopped. Peter's own notes are short, and Johnny reads them correctly. Peter adores his daughter and will not let her marry a man with a prison record.
Then a letter arrives from Peter, and it is brief and kind. Marney is to marry a Major Floyd of Toronto, an honest man who will make her happy. Johnny paces his cell for ten minutes, then raises a mug of water toward the barred window and wishes her luck. The scene sets his character. He is cool and dry in manner, but he feels everything.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about La camera n. 13
Who is Mr. Reeder in Room 13?
Mr. J. G. Reeder is a stooping man in an old frock coat who talks about flowers, rabbits and poultry. He works for the banks and the government, and he notices everything. Wallace used him in several other stories.
What does Room 13 mean in the book?
Room 13 is a private dining room at the Highlow Club, a secret meeting place for thieves. It is the scene of a shooting and later a dinner. The unlucky number suits a room where trouble keeps happening.
Is Room 13 easy to read?
Yes, the chapters are short, the dialogue is lively and the plot moves quickly. The underworld slang is explained as it appears, and Parker the valet and Reeder add a good deal of humor along the way.