The Green Archer - Edgar Wallace

So, I've gotten really interested in old movie serials lately. It was popular in the early 1900s where a 20 minute-ish story would play before the feature film at a cinema. I've watched a few now, but my very favorite so far is definitely Captain Marvel (Shazam). It has it all - a supernatural dude hiding in a tomb waiting to give a teenager superpowers, the cliffhanger at the end of every episode, a flying superhero - and tons of laughs! Anyway, as I was researching these little gems, I came across a few that were inspired by novels. I wondered how that worked and picked up this book. The book was written in 1923 and made into a serial in 1940.

This story is about a hero, Jim, a woman, Valerie, and a villain, Abe Bellamy. Add in a newspaperman, some minor criminals, a host of side characters and a ghost, and you've got yourself a mystery. Valerie is searching for a woman, but she won't say why. Bellamy is being haunted by a ghost that is dressed as an archer and is a great shot. I won't say much more, it's one that you just have to experience.

It took me a few extra days to read this just because it was tough to read. That was all on me though. I've been having issues with reading pdfs on my Kindle, the print comes across too small, so I tried to download an epub and convert it to a mobi. What happened was...interesting. For the most part, I could figure out what was going on, but some sentences would end abruptly while others were split up across the page. It was pretty irritating, but I learned what not to do. I guess I'll try something else next time.

Overall, I did like the story. I kept thinking I had finally figured out the identity of the Green Archer, and every time, I was wrong. I loved that about the story. The villain is somewhat over-the-top, but that isn't unusual with a serial, so Bellamy is perfect. I'm going to see if I can find the serial and see how it translated. I think if I'd had a better copy of the book, I would've enjoyed it more. The story itself was engaging and easily gets a Good Book! rating from me.