Books: The Man Who Bought London

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - Edgar Wallace belonged to the most successful English book authors in the 20th century. He created more than 170 novels and about 1,000 short stories, mostly crime mysteries (wikipedia). In the 1960s a series of funny Edgar Wallace films, featuring the peerless Klaus Kinski, became huge hits in Germany.

I enjoyed his novels  - and films - decades ago and decided to reread "The Man Who Bought London" ( just 133 pages amazon ).

The book mixes 2 parallel running plots: An American, known as the billionaire "Kerry", represents a huge trust and buys quite a lot properties in the center of London and rearranges them. The second plot is a crime mystery about the conflict between this Kerry and a villain, his nemesis.

I was impressed how Wallace described Kerry´s master plan. The way the investor changed London´s infrastructure and upgraded the shops there is impressive and visionary. Wallace wrote: "London would one day be twice its present size, and ground value would be enormously increased. Its unique situation, the security which came from the geographic". Today London belongs to the global cities where millions from all over the world come and spend their money. 

Wallace also described modern retail giants like Walmart & Amazon: There is "a warehouse fill with stuff in south London - a year`s supply". Kerry "bought his stock in advance,and he`s selling exactly six times the amount of goods that any other house does". Otherwise Kerry offered to sell much cheaper than other shops, which would be today a case for antitrust and called "predatory pricing".

The background story about the conflict between Kerry, the "good" one, and Henry his ruthless nemesis is a bit too soapy for my taste. But there are a lot surprises and the plot culminates into shockingly and surprising finale. Apparently the whole plot is .. constructed to lead to this end.

"The Man Who" is a peculiar mixture and a quick quirky read - recommended for those who want to read something besides the trodden path. In the moment of writing the Kindle version costs just 99 Cents.