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Audiobook edition · 8 h 17 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
When the law cannot reach a criminal, who has the right to punish?
Jack O' Judgment by Edgar Wallace draws you into a shadowy criminal underworld, where the pull of justice meets the urge for vengeance. Crooks, detectives and ordinary citizens live close together. Dark corners and hidden meetings make this a world where people are not always what they seem.
Wallace brings a reporter's sense of pace to crime fiction. Streets and rooms feel concrete, while short chapters keep you moving toward the next clue or surprise. Beneath that forward rush lies an uneasy question: where does justice end and private punishment begin? The tension gives you more than a puzzle to follow.
What you’ll discover
- A world of shadows Step into an underworld of hidden meetings, where appearances offer little comfort.
- Justice against vengeance Consider what happens when the desire to punish reaches beyond the law.
- A reporter's sharp eye Discover Wallace's concrete streets and rooms, shaped by his instinct for holding attention.
- Clues that pull you onward Follow the clues and surprises that give this old-fashioned crime thriller its momentum.
- One more short chapter Feel the pull of chapter endings that make stopping a little harder.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy a cunning villain, a masked avenger and a chase through lamplit London will find plenty here. Anyone who likes to guess a hidden identity will feel at home.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A card unsettles a powerful man
- Jack attacks the gang's hidden power
- A witness falls before speaking
- Respectable bargains conceal threats and shame
- Maisie takes her own risks
- A daughter becomes a father's lure
- Rescue carries a troubling condition
- Justice and law pull apart
- Fear turns against its makers
Who’s who
- Colonel Dan BoundaryA heavy, soft-spoken schemer who buys businesses cheap by threatening scandal, and who wants to keep his fortune and his freedom.
- Stafford KingA calm, gray-eyed chief of the Criminal Intelligence Department who wants to break the Boundary Gang and protect Maisie.
- Maisie WhiteA stage mimic whose father belongs to a gang, she wants to clear his name and undo the harm the gang has caused.
- Jack o' JudgmentA masked figure in black silk who mocks the gang and wants to ruin Boundary and his men one by one.
- Pinto SilvaA vain, handsome Portuguese in the colonel's circle who wants Maisie and wants above all to save himself.
- Lollie MarshA baby-faced decoy who lures men for the colonel, but who longs for a decent life.
- Swell CreweA once-polished gentleman turned thief who brought a young drug user into the gang and wants a way out.
- Sir Stanley BelcomThe smiling First Commissioner of Criminal Intelligence, who suspects the colonel and trusts his own odd theories.
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Jack O' Judgment
by Edgar Wallace · 1920
A masked man in black silk crashes a blackmailers' meeting, and a playing card serves as his ominous calling card.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“Give a dog a bad name and hang him”
In short
A young man lies dead in a Lambeth gutter on a snowy night. In his pocket are a tin of cocaine and a single playing card, the Jack of Clubs.
Jack O' Judgment at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h 35 min3 h 40 min fast, 5 h 30 min slow
- Length
- 66,000 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1920by Edgar Wallace
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Playing Card Haunts a Powerful Man
Colonel Dan Boundary lives in a grand flat in Albemarle Place and wants for nothing. One morning a letter marked private holds only a soiled Knave of Clubs with a name along its edge. The words are Jack o' Judgment. The colonel tosses it away, but he cannot toss away the face it calls to mind.
That face belongs to Snow Gregory, a gambler who once worked for him. Gregory was shot dead in a Lambeth gutter with the same card on his body. A coroner's jury blamed persons unknown.
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Details
- First published
- 1920
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 5 h 25 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Wallace, Edgar. Jack O' Judgment. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/jack-o-judgment.
Wallace, E. (2026). Jack O' Judgment. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/jack-o-judgment (Original work published 1920)
Wallace, Edgar. Jack O' Judgment. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/jack-o-judgment.
@book{wallace2026jack,
author = {Wallace, Edgar},
title = {Jack O' Judgment},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/jack-o-judgment},
note = {First published 1920}
}
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What is Jack O' Judgment about?
It is a crime thriller about Colonel Dan Boundary, a blackmailer who builds a fortune by buying businesses cheap. A masked figure called Jack o' Judgment begins to attack the gang, while Stafford King of Scotland Yard tries to prove the colonel's crimes.
Who is Jack o' Judgment?
The name belongs to a masked figure in black silk who uses a Jack of Clubs as his calling card. Characters guess at many identities. The book plays with this question and settles it only in its last chapters.
What does the Knave of Clubs card mean?
It is the playing card found on the body of Snow Gregory, a young man shot dead in a Lambeth gutter. Jack o' Judgment uses it as a calling card and a sign that a judgment has been made.
The author
Edgar Wallace
1875–1932 · British crime writer
Edgar Wallace was a hugely prolific British writer of thrillers and crime fiction who later co-created the story for King Kong. The Adventures of Heine follows Heine, a German secret agent, through a series of comic misadventures in Britain during the First World War.
“Give a dog a bad name and hang him”
More by Edgar Wallace
See all their booksMore like this
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