Summary
Summary of The Man Who Knew
Key ideas
Key idea 1
Fear fills John Minute's house
At Weald Lodge, John Minute has money but little peace. He fears a violent death, distrusts those around him, and pays Sergeant Smith for a protection he will not explain. Even his gold mine raises questions, as someone is buying shares in a business that has never paid.
His secretary, Jasper Cole, keeps secrets of his own. Behind a locked door he conducts experiments, studies a girl's photograph, and burns a letter reporting a discovery. Before any crime is solved, the household already has much to hide.
Key idea 2
Separate troubles begin to connect
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Key idea 3
Mann knows what money cannot buy
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Key idea 4
May faces two competing requests
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Key idea 5
A forged identity drains the bank
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Key idea 6
Old threats become a new accusation
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Key idea 7
A stopped wedding precedes a shooting
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Key idea 8
The evidence leaves room for doubt
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Key idea 9
Appearances must be tested against facts
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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
You will enjoy this if you like clue-filled detective stories, forged checks, locked rooms and a clever investigator, and if you enjoy Edwardian London, country houses and a cast of schemers, loyal friends and eccentric policemen.
What this book is
The Man Who Knew is an Edwardian mystery by Edgar Wallace, written as a tale of crime, love and detection in which one small man seems to hold every fact in London. It joins a rich man who fears for his life, a bank swindle, a shooting in a lighted room and a trial that holds a whole county. The clues lie in plain view, and you are invited to weigh them for yourself.
At the center stands John Minute, a Rhodesian millionaire with a rough past and many enemies. Around him move his nephew Frank Merrill, a bank accountant, his ward May Nuttall, who runs a charity mission in the East End, and his pale, clever secretary Jasper Cole. Each of them keeps a private matter close, and each secret pulls the reader in a different direction. Then comes Saul Arthur Mann, a private investigator with a gift for names, dates and old scandals, whom the police call The Man Who Knows.
This summary shows how the mystery is built, who stands where, and which questions the book asks you to hold in your mind. The ending stays hidden here, so you can still enjoy it on the page. Let us begin at Weald Lodge, on an evening when a secretary locks a laboratory door and a millionaire cannot settle to sleep.
In this summary
- 1A rich man fears a violent deathFree
- 2A frightened wife and a dead stranger
- 3The little man who is never at a loss
- 4Love, money and a promise to wait
- 5Forged checks and a gentleman who vanishes
- 6Sergeant Smith calls and May overhears
- 7A wedding that fails and a shot in the library
- 8The will, the trial and a letter from Montreux
- 9Doubles, masks and how Wallace tells it
Key point 1 of 9
A rich man fears a violent death
The story opens at Weald Lodge, a country house between Eastbourne and Wilmington. In a damp former billiard room, Jasper Cole works behind a mask over a boiling dish, testing the liquid on strips of paper. He is the confidential secretary of John Minute, who handed him the room because he had no time for billiards. Jasper is handsome, polite and pale, and he locks the door whenever the fumes rise. Alone, he studies a photograph of a sixteen-year-old girl with a sad, weak face.
Dinner is a silent meal. John Minute reads the stock-market news and grumbles that someone is buying Gwelo Deeps, a gold mine that has never paid. He owns half of the shares, and the other half belongs to May Nuttall, the daughter of his dearest friend. He tells Jasper that May is the girl he would like him to marry. He also sneers at his nephew Frank, whom he calls a bit of a rascal.
Minute is a man crowded with fears. He pays a policeman named Sergeant Smith a weekly sum, and he calls it both an opiate and a protection against something he will not name. He thinks Constable Wiseman is a fool who has summoned him three times. Two witch doctors in Zululand once told him he would die by violence. He says he has no opinion of humanity, since everyone who meets him wishes he would die and leave them his money.
Even at bedtime he keeps thinking of orders. Jasper must cable the mine manager, ask when the company board last met, and find out whether the mission May runs needs funds. Jasper nods, bolts the doors and checks every lock himself. Then he goes to his study and takes out a letter that he slipped from the evening mail. It comes from a man named Fleming, who thanks him for a check and says that a long and costly search has ended in a discovery.
Jasper reads it carefully, strikes a match and burns it in the grate. The reader is left with questions. Who is the girl in the photograph, and what has Jasper been searching for? Who is paid to find it? Wallace plants these questions in the first chapter and lets them work quietly, and they return as the story moves toward its darkest night.
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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Check yourself
What makes Saul Arthur Mann valuable as an investigator?
Right. “His method is memory and files, not chase scenes, and Wallace makes that method exciting by letting him astonish people with a single list of objects.”Not quite. “His method is memory and files, not chase scenes, and Wallace makes that method exciting by letting him astonish people with a single list of objects.”
Why does Frank urge May to marry him before his birthday?
Right. “He tells her that if he marries before his twenty-fourth birthday, in about ten days, he will be free of his uncle and his uncle's money.”Not quite. “He tells her that if he marries before his twenty-fourth birthday, in about ten days, he will be free of his uncle and his uncle's money.”
What does the creation of Rex Holland reveal about appearances?
Right. “Someone with real skill and patience has built a false man out of letters and a rented flat.”Not quite. “Someone with real skill and patience has built a false man out of letters and a rented flat.”
Questions about The Man Who Knew
What is The Man Who Knew by Edgar Wallace about?
It is a mystery about the murder of a rich former Rhodesian pioneer, John Minute, and the forged bank checks around him. A private investigator who seems to know everything helps clear a young man accused of the crime.
Who is the Man Who Knew in the book?
He is Saul Arthur Mann, a small private investigator in London who keeps a huge filing system of facts about people and places. Scotland Yard and the government rely on him, and the police nickname him The Man Who Knows.
Who is Rex Holland?
Rex Holland is the name of a well-dressed depositor who opens an account at a London bank and cashes forged checks in John Minute's name. Nobody except Frank Merrill has ever seen him, and the question of who he is drives the plot.
When was The Man Who Knew written and is it a true story?
Edgar Wallace wrote it as a work of fiction in the Edwardian period, the early twentieth century. The narrator claims it draws on a trial record and private papers, but this is part of the storytelling style.
Is The Man Who Knew easy to read?
Yes, in a good sense: short chapters, lively dialogue and a clear sequence of events make it approachable. Exact times, plain language and the comic figure of Constable Wiseman keep the story moving along from scene to scene.
