Edgar Wallace 
The Green Rust 

This is an enjoyable short story by Edgar Wallace, set in England during the 1920’s. „The Green Rust”, his twelfth crime novel, is one of three books he published in 1919. It begins at the English home of the severely ill American millionaire, John Millinborn. With him are his best friend, Kitson, and a local doctor, the Dutch van Heerden. He is murdered, stabbed to death in his sick bed in the first chapter, having just left his fortune to his niece, Oliva, whom he has never met. Before he dies, he asks Kitson to find and watch over Oliva. But then there’s the young detective, a young woman, a fortune, secret laboratories, poison, some gun play, hostages, and the list goes on… The mysteries multiply and deepen as the story proceeds.