Bones

Sanders of the River #5

by Edgar Wallace

Wallace was a journalist, playwright, and prolific author of crime fiction, thrillers, and adventure novels. He is best known for creating King Kong. During the Boer War, he was posted in South Africa. Afterwards he began writing the Commissioner Sanders series of novels based on his adventures in Africa. These launched his career as a popular novelist. Hundreds of films and several television series were made from his books.

Genres: British Literature, Crime

216 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1915

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

[Zain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not Politically Correct!

This was written in the late eighteen nineties or in the early twenties. It was written at least 120 years ago. Lots of good, blatant racism and misogyny.

Bones, a British man who is a lieutenant stationed in a colony located in Africa. He is a member of the British military and so is Commissioner Sanders, and so is Captain Hamilton.

There are chapters in this book that deals with what the tribes have against each other. And the British members of the colony. And the shenanigans that Bones get into when he is told to intervene in the affairs of the tribes.

And yes, plenty of white supremacy. They treat the natives like dangerous children with knives or spears. And they are dangerous, but they are not childish. No, not at all.

The natives look at the world as filled with magic. Not scientific. So they have a different way of looking at the world. The British way is superior, of course. They take the natives view of British people having magical powers to their advantage.

Despite all the evidence of this, the stories are still very much fun to read. You learn about the past and how things used to be in Africa and ancient times, based on the things that happened there, before the British got there.

So, I’m going to stop right here and say that I’m giving the stories four stars for showing their history of the past.

Four stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Jürgen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Strukturlos heruntergeschriebene Ansammlung rassistischer Vorurteile. Schwer erträglich.

[Marci · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book on my Kindle mainly because it was free, and also because last summer we stumbled on a pub named The Edgar Wallace in London and ate lunch there, where I became intrigued with finding out more about this author who used to be very well known and now is mostly forgotten.

"Bones" is the nickname for Lt. Augustus Tibbits, a very young man posted to the British-controlled Congo area in colonial Africa around the turn of the twentieth century. Bones is silly, sly, naive, brave, inadvertently successful, and (of course, given the setting) racist but without maliciousness. I must confess to being a bit racist myself when it comes to stereotypical Brits: I see them as having an attitude of superiority over the entire rest of the world that has little basis in reality, so their attitude toward the African people is completely unsurprising to me. The stories are humorous and well written but definitely a product of their time and place.

That said, I enjoyed reading them--even if I probably shouldn't. Edgar Wallace was once the most popular author in England, and it shows. I expect I will download more of his mysteries and non-African books so as to enjoy the writing without the overt racism problem.

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This free Kindle dowwnload was not to my liking. The irrepressible "Bones" (Augustus Tibbett) was not so much in this story as in the one I just read, "Bones in London." If I had read thiss one first, I would not have read "Bones in London." The plot and characters of this book seemed "labored," as though it were Wallace's first attempt at storytelling. The 2-star rating says it all, "it was okay."

[Craig Herbertson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's Tally Ho and whimsical amusement in the deadliest peril as Bones, a duff and callow youth is commissioned to help Sanders in deepest darkest Africa. As I am capable of dismissing political correctness in a book I enjoyed the book for what it is - a period piece of the grand colonial days written with ethnocentric bias and a general disregard for aspects of the true state of affairs.

[Christy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was not a charming as Bones in London.

[Vasanthan Panchavarnam · Rating 5 out of 5]

One word, GREAT!