Summary
Summary of The Green Rust
Key ideas
Key idea 1
A secret fortune invites danger
At Hill Lodge, the dying shipbuilder John Millinborn asks his solicitor, James Kitson, to protect a niece he has never met. Oliva Cresswell is to inherit his fortune, but she must not learn about it until she marries. Millinborn hopes secrecy will keep fortune hunters away.
Dr. van Heerden sends Kitson out for medicine. When the solicitor returns, Millinborn has been stabbed, and a ragged stranger is fleeing the cottage. The promise meant to protect Oliva now sits inside an unsolved murder.
Key idea 2
The drunken neighbour reveals another face
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Key idea 3
Help may hide a trap
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Key idea 4
A father's warning ends in death
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Key idea 5
The doctor drops his kindly mask
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Key idea 6
Oliva makes clues of her prison
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Key idea 7
Actions reveal more than appearances
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Key idea 8
Small objects keep the danger moving
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Key idea 9
Private danger opens onto wider stakes
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
Readers who enjoy a fast thriller with a clever detective, a spirited heroine and a scheming villain. It suits anyone who likes early twentieth century London, secret laboratories, disguises and a ticking clock.
What this book is
The Green Rust is a thriller by Edgar Wallace, who died in 1932. It tells of a London shop cashier, a young man who seems to be a hopeless drunk, and a doctor with a plan to bring the world to its knees. Wallace wrote in the years just after the First World War, and the book carries that time's fear of a defeated Germany that wants its revenge.
The book opens with a murder in a Sussex cottage and moves quickly through a dismissal, a break-in, a poisoning in a hotel and a kidnapping. Each chapter is short and ends on a hook. You meet people who are not what they seem, and you watch a clever detective work out what a green powder can do to a field of wheat.
You get a plot with real pace, a heroine who thinks for herself, and a villain who is sure he is the cleverest man in the room. Along the way you also get a good deal of dry humour. Let us start in a sickroom on a hill, where a dying millionaire is trying to protect a niece he has never met.
In this summary
- 1A dying millionaire and a knifeFree
- 2The drunk across the landing
- 3Fired, searched and accused
- 4A strange office and a warning in code
- 5Death in the palm court
- 6The doctor takes what he wants
- 7A parson, a professor and a broken bag
- 8Deans Folly
- 9What the story is really about
- 10How Wallace tells it
Key point 1 of 10
A dying millionaire and a knife
The story begins at Hill Lodge, a modest cottage on a Sussex hilltop. John Millinborn, a huge and wealthy shipbuilder, lies dying. His old friend James Kitson, a neat and careful solicitor, sits beside him. Millinborn has just made his will and now explains why. His sister married a swindler who ruined her and then hid their baby daughter under a false name.
Millinborn has found out that the girl lives in London under the name Oliva Cresswell. He leaves her a fortune of a million and a half pounds. He is afraid of fortune hunters, so he makes Kitson promise that she must not know about the money until she is married. He asks Kitson to watch over her and to step in only if a worthless man comes close to her.
A young doctor is also in the house. Dr. van Heerden, a stranger with a pointed beard, happened to share the train with Millinborn and has stayed on to nurse him. He taps his teeth when he is nervous. He asks Kitson to fetch strychnine from the village, a walk that takes nearly an hour.
On the path Kitson meets a filthy, swollen faced man with a black rimmed monocle. The man talks of boiling people alive and then strolls away into the trees. Kitson goes on, buys the drug and walks back up the hill.
Back at the lodge, the dying man calls out in a sudden burst of strength. Then he falls silent. Through the window Kitson sees the same ragged stranger running in terror down the slope. In the bedroom he finds blood on the floor and the ivory handle of a knife in Millinborn's side. The police find footprints in the flower beds and never find the stranger, and that unanswered question drives much of what follows.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Check yourself
Why does Millinborn want Oliva's inheritance kept secret until she marries?
Right. “He is afraid of fortune hunters, so he makes Kitson promise that she must not know about the money until she is married.”Not quite. “He is afraid of fortune hunters, so he makes Kitson promise that she must not know about the money until she is married.”
How does Oliva help herself while held at Deans Folly?
Right. “She works out the name of the house, escapes down a service lift and hides a clue that matters later.”Not quite. “She works out the name of the house, escapes down a service lift and hides a clue that matters later.”
What larger threat lies behind the kidnapping and poisonings?
Right. “Behind the kidnapping and the poisonings lies a plan to turn a defeated country's anger into a weapon against the world's food.”Not quite. “Behind the kidnapping and the poisonings lies a plan to turn a defeated country's anger into a weapon against the world's food.”
Questions about The Green Rust
What is The Green Rust about?
It follows Oliva Cresswell, a London cashier, and Stanford Beale, a detective, as they try to stop Dr. van Heerden. He plans to use a plant disease called the Green Rust to destroy the world's wheat and force other nations to pay his country.
What is the Green Rust in the book?
It is a plant disease grown in a secret laboratory, a musty smelling green powder. A tiny amount can rot a whole wheat field in a day, and the villain wants to release it across many countries at a signal.
Who is Stanford Beale?
Beale is an American detective, once with the United States Secret Service, hired by Mr. Kitson to protect Oliva. He pretends to be a drunk in Krooman Mansions so that he can watch the doctor without being suspected.
When was The Green Rust written and is it a true story?
Edgar Wallace wrote it in the years just after the First World War. It is fiction, but it plays on real postwar fears about Germany, war debts and the world's grain supply, which gave it a topical feel.
Is The Green Rust easy to read?
Yes, in the sense that the chapters are short, the language is plain and the dialogue is lively. Each chapter ends with a hook, and the humour of Beale and the pompous Mr. White keeps the pages turning.
