6 h 3 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 6 h 3 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the most dangerous thing a man holds is something he knows?
In Edgar Wallace's The Man Who Knew, people hide secrets, names invite doubt, and one man holds knowledge that others fear. This mystery turns on the gap between what people claim to be and what they may really be. As you read, every claim becomes something to test rather than simply trust.
The Edwardian world gives those doubts weight. Strict manners and class lines make a person's name, family and standing matter. Behind polite company lies the possibility of deception. Wallace's fast, plain crime writing invites you to look past appearances and follow a clear question: what does this man know, and why do others fear it?
What you’ll discover
- Knowledge with a cost Follow a mystery where one person's knowledge becomes a source of fear for others.
- Names that invite doubt Look closely at identities that may conceal more than they reveal.
- Secrets behind good manners Enter a world where polite company leaves room for carefully hidden truths.
- A reader's double vision Test what people say about themselves against what they may really be.
- A quickening pace Enjoy quick chapters and plain storytelling that keep the central mystery in view.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this book if you like classic puzzles with forgers, disguises and courtroom scenes, and a sleuth who collects facts like stamps.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A rich man fears a violent death
- A bullied girl and a secret plan
- A dead stranger and the man who knows
- Secret rooms, a bank and an index
- A forger writes a fortune away
- Sergeant Smith calls and a wedding fails
- A night of shots and a long trial
- A double, a letter and a kidnapping
- Names, money and who deserves trust
- How Wallace tells a puzzle for the ear
Who’s who
- John MinuteA rough, rich Rhodesian millionaire who fears a violent death, hides his past and wants to arrange the marriages of those around him.
- Jasper ColeHis pale, clever secretary and amateur chemist, who keeps a laboratory, a locked room in the East End and many private plans.
- Frank MerrillJohn Minute's cheerful nephew and heir, a bank accountant who wants to marry May and be free of his uncle's control.
- May NuttallA young woman and mission worker, ward of John Minute, who must choose between two men she cannot fully read.
- Saul Arthur MannA small private investigator with an enormous index of facts, known as the Man Who Knows, who wants the truth and the whole story.
- Constable WisemanA proud Sussex policeman who believes he is wiser than the Yard and is sure of what he saw.
- Sergeant SmithA hard-drinking policeman with a Rhodesian past who lives off John Minute's weekly payments and wants a larger share.
- Rex HollandA polished stranger with a large bank balance and no known past, whose checks look exactly like John Minute's.
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- Hardcover
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The Man Who Knew
by Edgar Wallace · 1918
Millionaire John Minute fears a violent death, and a little man who knows everything takes the case.
Medium level5–10 hours to readEnglish
Excellent
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In short
What does a man do when a witch doctor tells him he will die by violence, and the police tell him there is nothing to investigate? In The Man Who Knew, Edgar Wallace puts a rich, hated millionaire named John Minute in exactly that spot.
The Man Who Knew at a glance
- Reading time
- About 3 h 20 min2 h 40 min fast, 4 h slow
- Length
- 48,100 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1918by 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 rich man fears a violent death
John Minute is a millionaire from Rhodesia who lives at Weald Lodge in Sussex. He is gruff, rumpled and suspicious of every stranger. His secretary, Jasper Cole, works in an old billiard room full of glass stills, test tubes and a microscope. The book opens there, with Jasper in a mask watching a dark liquid boil.
Over a silent dinner, Minute says he holds half a million shares in a mine for himself and half for May Nuttall, his dead friend's daughter. He wants Jasper to marry her. He waves off his nephew Frank Merrill as a rascal. He also pays Sergeant Smith, a local policeman, every week to keep trouble quiet, and he will not say what the trouble is.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1918
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 3 h 55 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Wallace, Edgar. The Man Who Knew. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-man-who-knew.
Wallace, E. (2026). The man who knew. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-man-who-knew (Original work published 1918)
Wallace, Edgar. The Man Who Knew. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-man-who-knew.
@book{wallace2026man,
author = {Wallace, Edgar},
title = {The Man Who Knew},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-man-who-knew},
note = {First published 1918}
}
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What is The Man Who Knew by Edgar Wallace about?
It is an Edwardian mystery about a rich, feared millionaire named John Minute, his secretary, his nephew and his ward. A bank fraud and a night of gunshots at his Sussex home deepen a mystery already involving the Man Who Knows.
Who is Saul Arthur Mann in The Man Who Knew?
He is a small, untidy private investigator who keeps vast files of facts about people and places. Scotland Yard trusts him, and the police call him the Man Who Knows because he seems to hold answers before anyone asks.
Who is Rex Holland in the book?
Rex Holland is the name of an elegant stranger who opens a large bank account and writes checks in John Minute's handwriting. Who he really is lies at the heart of the mystery and drives the investigation.
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
See all their booksMore like this
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