9 h 26 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 9 h 26 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the next great weapon attacks not people, but the grain that keeps them alive?
In The Green Rust, Edgar Wallace builds a thriller around a threat to the food nations depend on. Rust, a plant disease that attacks grain, becomes a weapon. Behind the danger lies a hidden scheme, protected by secrecy. Those hunting it face stakes that reach far beyond a single crime.
The chase turns on a question: what happens when knowledge of nature falls into the wrong hands? Science promises better harvests, yet it can also threaten them. Wallace keeps that danger close through scheming, pursuit and quick chapters, giving the story a sense that time is running short.
What you’ll discover
- A harvest under threat Feel the urgency of a mystery in which the food supply itself is at risk.
- Secrets worth pursuing Follow determined hunters toward a hidden scheme whose planners depend on keeping their purpose concealed.
- Science turned against life Explore the danger of knowledge used to destroy the crops it might otherwise help protect.
- A swiftly moving chase Let quick chapters and clear stakes carry you through a tale of secrecy and pursuit.
- Danger beyond one victim Enter a crime story that makes the safety of the harvest a matter of worldwide concern.
Who will love it
This book suits you if you enjoy fast chases, secret identities, daring rescues, a witty hero, a heroine with a quick tongue, and old London streets lit by gas lamps and fog.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A dying millionaire hides an heir
- A girl, a doctor and a drunk
- Dismissed, accused, and searched
- Beale's strange office and his plain words
- Tea at the Grand Alliance
- Abducted from her own room
- Locked in at Deans Folly
- A race of clues, and the plan that goes wrong
- Appearances and trust
- Money, nation and the style of the telling
Who’s who
- Oliva CresswellA quick, brave London cashier who talks to herself as Matilda and wants only an honest living, not knowing she is an heiress.
- Stanford BealeAn American detective who plays a drunkard in a London flat while he hunts a plot he calls the Green Terror.
- Dr. van HeerdenA bearded, polite London physician and secret German patriot who needs money fast and will lie, drug or kill to get it.
- James KitsonA careful, kind old lawyer who promised his dying friend to find and protect the heiress without telling her the truth.
- Superintendent McNortonA cheerful, shrewd Scotland Yard officer who has orders to help Beale and slowly learns how serious the matter is.
- Hilda GlaumA silent, dark-haired clerk at Punsonby's who is devoted to the doctor and will do whatever he asks.
- Professor HeylerAn ugly, big-headed German chemist, poor and grateful, who works for the doctor out of loyalty and a wish to be fed.
- Parson HomoA clever, educated criminal who once served as a clergyman, mocks the law, and agrees to help Beale for a price.
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The Green Rust
by Edgar Wallace · 1919
A fired shop girl, a drunken neighbor who is not drunk, and a packet of green dust pull Oliva into a deadly plot.
Medium level5–10 hours to readEnglish
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In short
Picture this. You come home to find a stranger in your dark flat.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A dying millionaire hides an heir
The story opens in Sussex, in a hilltop cottage called Hill Lodge. John Millinborn, a shipbuilder worth a million and a half pounds, lies dying. His old friend, the lawyer James Kitson, sits beside him and listens to a last request.
Millinborn's sister married a swindler who ruined her and vanished with her baby. Now Millinborn wants to leave everything to that child, a girl named Oliva Prédeaux who works in London and does not know she is his niece. She must not learn of her fortune until she marries, because he fears fortune hunters.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 9 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1919
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 6 h 10 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Wallace, Edgar. The Green Rust. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-green-rust.
Wallace, E. (2026). The green rust. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-green-rust (Original work published 1919)
Wallace, Edgar. The Green Rust. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-green-rust.
@book{wallace2026green,
author = {Wallace, Edgar},
title = {The Green Rust},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-green-rust},
note = {First published 1919}
}
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What is The Green Rust about?
It follows a London shop girl, Oliva Cresswell, and an American detective, Stanford Beale, as they face Dr. van Heerden, a physician with a secret scheme. The plot involves a hidden inheritance, abduction, a green powder and a race against time.
Who is Stanford Beale?
Beale is an American detective who pretends to be a drunk neighbor of Oliva in London. He is hired by the lawyer Kitson to guard her, and he also follows the secret plot that gives the book its title.
What does the Green Rust mean in the story?
It is the name of a secret that van Heerden is developing, first seen as a small amount of green powder. Its true nature unfolds slowly, and the book keeps the reader guessing about what it can do.
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.
More by Edgar Wallace
All 21 booksMore like this
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