Bones in London

Sanders of the River #8

by Edgar Wallace

The new managing director of Schemes Ltd. has an elegant London office and a theatrically dressed assistant. However Bones, as he is better known, is bored. Luckily there is a slump in the shipping market and it is not long before Joe and Fred Pole pay Bones a visit. They are totally unprepared for Bones' unnerving style of doing business, unprepared for his unique style of innocent and endearing mischief.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, British Literature, Crime

186 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1921

About the author

Richard 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.

Reviews

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this free download to my Kindle. The hero, "Bones," reminded me in a way of Bertie Wooster (PG Wodehouse). No matter what venture Bones entered, he had a knack of getting out of trouble and actually "winning." His manner of speaking (and his manner of "spelling") amused me. This was a fun read and I have another one on my Kindle to read next.

[Scot · Rating 2 out of 5]

Better known as a mystery writer, Wallace, who churned out quite a lot of literature (174 novels, 24 plays!), also did a series about an exxentric London businessman named Augustus Tibbetts, nicknamed Bones, and this is one of those books. Essentially, Bones in London is a series of loosely connected short stories, all with the same basic plot, chapter after chapter. The hero launches into some entrepreneurial venture, usually something that looks like a very bad deal or a swindle, and then manages to survive and usually come out amassing a great profit. Most of the time this is due to luck, although occasionally he does demonstrate clever thinking. He is madly in love and incredibly shy around the beautiful (and smart) young secretary he hires, though she seems to remain blissfully unaware despite all the obvious clues. Still, as the novel progresses, we do see some development on that front. The many diverse swindles help one get a sense of the capitalistic spirit in England when it still had an Empire, and the heavy use of slang is fun for those who enjoy that sort of linguistic examination. To be honest, I started to read it because I thought the bones in the title referred to a dead body, not a quirky, curious hero, and I'm not sure I would have read this book if I had checked what it was actually about first.

[Naticia · Rating 3 out of 5]

More P.G. Wodehouse than I was expecting, but rather fun.

[Madeleine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really didn’t expect to enjoy this book as much as I did, especially as it was written around 80 years before I was born! A very funny book with well developed characters.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Light reading, certainly, but very enjoyable - just don't try to understand the business deals. Bones is so endearing.

[Timothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first experience with Edgar Wallace outside of his mysteries. It was not what I expected. His mysteries can border on dry and slow This has a dozen light stories that are fast and humorous.
I see references in other reviews to PG Wodehouse with his Wooster and Jeeves stories. Augustus Tibbets, aka Bones, does manage to constantly get himself into trouble, but unlike Bertie Wooster, he does it by trying too hard with his business, instead of trying to find more time to drink and to party with anyone available. Bones does not have a Jeeves to figure out how to save him, he has to rely on his own "figuring" and a lot of luck.

[Kim Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

A jolly old book about a very lucky businessman in London

[Michael Hill · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bones inherits some money and decides to go into the financial world to help people. There follows a series of unlikely financial transactions where somehow he does not end up bankrupt. Boring.

[Toni Stastny · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a fun read inbetween other books. Each Chapter is a new Con that Bone, the main character, was doing. He is very clever. You need to understand some of the British slang.

[H Jesseman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amusing stories, but the ones set in Africa are better.

[Perry Whitford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meet Augustus Tibbetts of Schemes Ltd, rich, chivalrous and green as grass, "Bones" is duped into various scams yet always comes out smelling of roses, either by sheer luck or the intervention of his 'dear typewriter' (secretary) Marguerite Whitland.

Across a sequence of misadventures which sees Bones miraculously make money in the likes of shipping, jute, warehousing and early cinema, he pines for Miss Whitland and writes atrocious poems about her which almost see the light of day after an escapade with a dodgy printer, poems 'which abounded in such rhymes as as "Marguerite," "Dainty feet," "Sweet," "Hard to beat," and the like.'

I thought Edgar Wallace was a mystery writer, not a comic writer of Wodehousian vintage. I had read two of his mysteries before and they were amusingly bad, whereas this comedy was seriously funny!

As one of Bones's reverse fallguys wonders, "This fellow is either as wide as Broad Street or he's a babe in arms."

3

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bones and co. have temporarily given up army life and returned to England (they would return to Africa for the next book in the series Sandi The king maker.) Bones who has inherited a fortune, has started speculating and through luck more than skill manages to make the most unlikely schemes and downright cons come off in his favour. The book is very much a comedy with the silly ass Bones, who is Wallace's equivalent of Bertie Wooster, getting into all sorts of scrapes.

[Carl · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the general style of Wodehouse. Bones is a wildly successful financier because he is a lamb among wolves and knows it. The evil doings of the financial sharks are turned on their heads. They lose; he wins. Perfect airplane book. Nice touches with Bones love for his "typewriter" Marguerite--she of the dainty feet. (Bones is a poet, too.)

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not at all what I expected, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Rather than a mystery, this is a collection of stories about a character named Bones whom to all appearances is a lovable, lucky idiot.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

It hasn't aged very well from being written 90 years ago or perhaps just the authors style but really couldn't get Bones voice from my head as being that of Henry Blofeld due to the mention of "my dear old thing" every few sentences.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Edgar Wallace and this collection of his short stories, although a little different, was very enjoyable.

[Mrsgeo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dated but entertaining stories.