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The Four Just Men #1-3
The Complete Four Just Men: Volume 1-The Four Just Men, The Council of Justice & The Just Men of Cordova
Justice-without jury, without appeal and without mercy These are stories of the Four Just Men, Edgar Wallace's famous characters known to the wider public principally as a result of the early television series of the same name. The source material is, of course, far removed from its celluloid derivative. Far from being set in the world post WW2, the original stories take place in the colourful period immediately following the Great War. The principal characters remain a refreshing antidote to stereotypical heroes for they are group of ruthless and dedicated vigilantes, disillusioned with a world where the wicked and the abusers of power perpetually go unpunished. The Just Men set about to rectify matters according to their own standards and retribution is dispensed on swift and deadly wings. All the Four Just Men stories are gathered together in a two volume set from Leonaur, available in soft or hardcover with dust jacket.
424 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1917
About the author
Edgar Wallace
2,394 books266 followersRichard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) was a prolific British crime writer, journalist and playwright, who wrote 175 novels, 24 plays, and countless articles in newspapers and journals.
Over 160 films have been made of his novels, more than any other author. In the 1920s, one of Wallace's publishers claimed that a quarter of all books read in England were written by him.
He is most famous today as the co-creator of "King Kong", writing the early screenplay and story for the movie, as well as a short story "King Kong" (1933) credited to him and Draycott Dell. He was known for the J. G. Reeder detective stories, The Four Just Men, the Ringer, and for creating the Green Archer character during his lifetime.
Over 160 films have been made of his novels, more than any other author. In the 1920s, one of Wallace's publishers claimed that a quarter of all books read in England were written by him.
He is most famous today as the co-creator of "King Kong", writing the early screenplay and story for the movie, as well as a short story "King Kong" (1933) credited to him and Draycott Dell. He was known for the J. G. Reeder detective stories, The Four Just Men, the Ringer, and for creating the Green Archer character during his lifetime.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 15, 2025
The Four Just Men by Edgar Wallace
10 out of 10
You can find this fabulous and short opus on quite a few important lists, from the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read https://www.theguardian.com/books/200... and the top 100 Crime Novels of All Time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Top... and this is more than an indication that one could well engage with a book that is marvelous and can be finished in a day, that is it takes less than four hours to finish.
The printing and the promotion of the book have been much less successful than the writing of The Four Just Men, given that Edgar Wallace has been more than generous with the idea of giving prizes for those who guess the murder method and when it had been established that he has to pay all those who guess correctly, due to the initial flaw in marketing, which had not said one prize for the first good answer, the author would find that he is overwhelmed by the sum due, in contrast with the sales from the novel, successful as it proved to be.
Reading this very intelligent narrative, the under signed has thought of the problem that is presented in at least a couple of philosophical courses or/and manuals, the one that comes to mind is freely available on YouTube and it is from the Yale University…it opens with the question of what would you do if a train is set to kill say fifteen people if it uses one track and two if it is to follow another and you would be able to change its course and thus you have to opt and say I would rather have those two killed and save the group with more humans…
It gets rather more complicated, or perhaps more difficult when one is asked to push a human being and be more active in killing him or her, in order to save more – it is one thing to push a button or pull a lever and another to be actively involved in a killing, even if it is meant for the good of more people, that can only be saved through pushing someone an stopping a fictional truck or train – this is obviously not a problem for the psychopaths, who feel nothing for others and the case we can think of is that of the very stable genius, alleged leader of the free world, who cares only for himself and the proof is the horrible manner in which he uses no mask, even when he is infected, and worse, prompts the members of his cult to skip on measures that prevent transmissions, therefore being criminally culpable and responsible for thousands of deaths…
How does he or that aforementioned issue come into play here…well, the Four Just Men, George Manfred, Leon Gonsales, Raymond Poiccart and their new recruit, Thery, present readers with a very interesting, awkward, moral and philosophical theme, for they are in the business of…killing people, mostly men, but also the odd woman, and that would be sufficient for many, if not most of the public to reject the notion outright and say that this is an abject notion and these are outrageous monsters…
But are they…given the knowledge that one individual is responsible for the deaths of so many others is it moral to sit on our hands and do nothing – true, it is possible to do even worse and cheer the creature, as happens in the case of American Ceausescu, who still has a chance, albeit is looks like one in seven now, or thereabouts, to win the coming elections, where more than fifty million deplorables will vote for him anyway…the hope is that the figure will remain under sixty million and low enough in swing states to prevent New age Caligula from ascending the throne, for that is how he sees his high office – or one must act and if possible eliminate the devil as the only way possible to prevent the loss of many lives…
There is a film called The Last Supper, with Cameron Diaz among many superb actors, in which another group takes on the same task and the goal is to kill Hitler before he becomes the fuhrer, applying the rule to those who follow the same model, racists, neo Nazis, men – again, the world is so much worse mostly because of men…in polls, Trump is very unpopular with women, who support him only in a proportion of one in three or close, whereas men are still equally divided between him and Biden…how stupid men can be http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/04/t...
The Four Just Men have been involved in the elimination of those earthlings that have been vicious in their life and somehow have escaped justice…there is yet another example, in another one of the Best Crime Novels of All Time, And Then There Were None http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/06/a... by the best of all crime writers, Agatha Christie, in which a judge – oops, some sort of a spoiler alert here, though it is not for this book here, which is anyway different in that we are assured from the start that the Four Just Men would commit the murder, what we have to see is not the usual ‘whodunit’, but just how they will do it, if they manage to penetrate such a protective scheme as to be considered inexpugnable – would decide to kill ten, including himself, criminals that have been responsible for deaths, but somehow they had escaped justice, until they came to the hands of One Just Man…
The foreign minister of Britain is determined to push a law that would do a lot of harm to men that had found refuge in the empire- this is happening at the turn of the nineteenth century, when Britain was still such an immense power, probably still competing with the USA for the first place in the world – heads of organizations that serve their respective countries from exile, opposition leaders, figures of essential status, who would become personae non grata after the law will have been passed and therefore victims of injustice and very likely murdered many of them, sending us to the problem of theosophy presented earlier on, which invites us to ponder…should we eliminate one to save more, or stand by.
The Four Just Men send a few warnings and state that if the minister would not abandon his law, they would have to kill him, although they do not want this and they would regret having to fulfill their obligation towards the many who would suffer if the legislation is proposed and approved…given their history, it is very likely that they will be a formidable force to reckon with, albeit this time there is an impressive apparatus in motion to protect one of his Majesty’s most important dignitaries and there are turns in the plot that incline the balance of power from the detectives towards the skilled Just Gentlemen…
10 out of 10
You can find this fabulous and short opus on quite a few important lists, from the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read https://www.theguardian.com/books/200... and the top 100 Crime Novels of All Time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Top... and this is more than an indication that one could well engage with a book that is marvelous and can be finished in a day, that is it takes less than four hours to finish.
The printing and the promotion of the book have been much less successful than the writing of The Four Just Men, given that Edgar Wallace has been more than generous with the idea of giving prizes for those who guess the murder method and when it had been established that he has to pay all those who guess correctly, due to the initial flaw in marketing, which had not said one prize for the first good answer, the author would find that he is overwhelmed by the sum due, in contrast with the sales from the novel, successful as it proved to be.
Reading this very intelligent narrative, the under signed has thought of the problem that is presented in at least a couple of philosophical courses or/and manuals, the one that comes to mind is freely available on YouTube and it is from the Yale University…it opens with the question of what would you do if a train is set to kill say fifteen people if it uses one track and two if it is to follow another and you would be able to change its course and thus you have to opt and say I would rather have those two killed and save the group with more humans…
It gets rather more complicated, or perhaps more difficult when one is asked to push a human being and be more active in killing him or her, in order to save more – it is one thing to push a button or pull a lever and another to be actively involved in a killing, even if it is meant for the good of more people, that can only be saved through pushing someone an stopping a fictional truck or train – this is obviously not a problem for the psychopaths, who feel nothing for others and the case we can think of is that of the very stable genius, alleged leader of the free world, who cares only for himself and the proof is the horrible manner in which he uses no mask, even when he is infected, and worse, prompts the members of his cult to skip on measures that prevent transmissions, therefore being criminally culpable and responsible for thousands of deaths…
How does he or that aforementioned issue come into play here…well, the Four Just Men, George Manfred, Leon Gonsales, Raymond Poiccart and their new recruit, Thery, present readers with a very interesting, awkward, moral and philosophical theme, for they are in the business of…killing people, mostly men, but also the odd woman, and that would be sufficient for many, if not most of the public to reject the notion outright and say that this is an abject notion and these are outrageous monsters…
But are they…given the knowledge that one individual is responsible for the deaths of so many others is it moral to sit on our hands and do nothing – true, it is possible to do even worse and cheer the creature, as happens in the case of American Ceausescu, who still has a chance, albeit is looks like one in seven now, or thereabouts, to win the coming elections, where more than fifty million deplorables will vote for him anyway…the hope is that the figure will remain under sixty million and low enough in swing states to prevent New age Caligula from ascending the throne, for that is how he sees his high office – or one must act and if possible eliminate the devil as the only way possible to prevent the loss of many lives…
There is a film called The Last Supper, with Cameron Diaz among many superb actors, in which another group takes on the same task and the goal is to kill Hitler before he becomes the fuhrer, applying the rule to those who follow the same model, racists, neo Nazis, men – again, the world is so much worse mostly because of men…in polls, Trump is very unpopular with women, who support him only in a proportion of one in three or close, whereas men are still equally divided between him and Biden…how stupid men can be http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/04/t...
The Four Just Men have been involved in the elimination of those earthlings that have been vicious in their life and somehow have escaped justice…there is yet another example, in another one of the Best Crime Novels of All Time, And Then There Were None http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/06/a... by the best of all crime writers, Agatha Christie, in which a judge – oops, some sort of a spoiler alert here, though it is not for this book here, which is anyway different in that we are assured from the start that the Four Just Men would commit the murder, what we have to see is not the usual ‘whodunit’, but just how they will do it, if they manage to penetrate such a protective scheme as to be considered inexpugnable – would decide to kill ten, including himself, criminals that have been responsible for deaths, but somehow they had escaped justice, until they came to the hands of One Just Man…
The foreign minister of Britain is determined to push a law that would do a lot of harm to men that had found refuge in the empire- this is happening at the turn of the nineteenth century, when Britain was still such an immense power, probably still competing with the USA for the first place in the world – heads of organizations that serve their respective countries from exile, opposition leaders, figures of essential status, who would become personae non grata after the law will have been passed and therefore victims of injustice and very likely murdered many of them, sending us to the problem of theosophy presented earlier on, which invites us to ponder…should we eliminate one to save more, or stand by.
The Four Just Men send a few warnings and state that if the minister would not abandon his law, they would have to kill him, although they do not want this and they would regret having to fulfill their obligation towards the many who would suffer if the legislation is proposed and approved…given their history, it is very likely that they will be a formidable force to reckon with, albeit this time there is an impressive apparatus in motion to protect one of his Majesty’s most important dignitaries and there are turns in the plot that incline the balance of power from the detectives towards the skilled Just Gentlemen…
Displaying 1 of 1 review