4191642Terror Keep — AdvertisementsEdgar Wallace

NOVELS AND STORIES BY
EDGAR WALLACE
PUBLISHED BY HODDER & STOUGHTON

  • THE FEATHERED SERPENT
  • TERROR KEEP
  • THE RINGER
  • THE BRIGAND
  • THE SQUARE EMERALD
  • THE NORTHING TRAMP
  • THE TRAITOR'S GATE
  • THE BLACK ABBOT
  • SANDERS
  • THE THREE JUST MEN
  • THE FOUR JUST MEN
  • THE LAW OF THE FOUR JUST MEN
  • THE GAUNT STRANGER
  • THE SINISTER MAN
  • THE CRIMSON CIRCLE
  • THE STRANGE COUNTESS
  • DOUBLE DAN
  • THE ANGEL OF TERROR
  • THE GREEN ARCHER
  • THE VALLEY OF GHOSTS
  • THE CLUE OF THE NEW PIN
  • THE DOOR WITH SEVEN LOCKS
  • THE MIND OF MR. J. G. REEDER
  • THE TERRIBLE PEOPLE
  • THE YELLOW SNAKE
  • THE JOKER
  • THE BRIGAND
  • THE DAY OF UNITING
  • PENELOPE OF THE "POLYANTHA"
  • WE SHALL SEE

Hodder & Stoughton, Ltd., Publishers, London, E.C.4

Novels and Stories by EDGAR WALLACE



The SQUARE EMERALD

"Mr. Edgar Wallace's new mystery novel is unquestionably a 'winner.' It is indeed one of the best stories he has ever written...."—Daily Mail. "Mr. Wallace's tale is so full of excitement, his plot so ingenious, mysterious, so subtly unfolded, and his characters in themselves so full of interest, that criticism is silenced until the book has been laid aside."—Scotsman. "The story keeps the reader guessing to the end.'—Irish Times. "This is by far the best thing Mr. Wallace has done."—Dundee Courier. "The story has a fresh thrill in every chapter."—Westminster Gazette. "It is one of his most ingenious."—Daily News. "Once more Edgar Wallace's magic craftsmanship and technical knowledge hypnotise, drug, and captivate the reader."—John o' London's Weekly.


The TRAITOR'S GATE

"A capital story.'"—Times. "Mr. Wallace reveals here the amazingly complete and skilful plan of Tiger Trayne for the burgling of the Crown Jewels in the Tower, and the details of the plot are worked out remarkably well."—Nottingham Guardian. "A clever, readable fantasia he makes of it. To build a fiction, without offending credibility, on Colonel Blood's attempt on the Regalia, would to most story-tellers be an impossibility. But not to Mr. Wallace. The deed is done, the romance is fulfilled, the last page 1s turned, and we have never thought of the improbabilities, the rank impossibility, of Hope Toyner's story. This author knows how to carry us away."—Morning Post. "'Tiger' Trayne, in Mr. Wallace's latest thriller, deserves to rank high in the hierarchy of crime."—Daily Mail. "From beginning to end the reader is held in suspense, tantalised and intrigued, and at the same time fascinated, by an author who is a complete master of his craft and of the art of gaining his effects. Few readers will rise from the present work until the last page has been scanned, and the variety of its interest will furnish food for many tastes."—Scotsman.


The BLACK ABBOT

"'The Black Abbot,' the clever reader will surmise from the 'jacket,' is a ghost, but the cleverest reader is only right up to a point when dealing with Edgar Wallace. Leaving the point, let us merely say that the Abbot plays a prominent part in a story of love and sinister treasure, a treasure hidden with an ingenuity calculated to defy even the late Sherlock Holmes. Quite a number of people are trailing the treasure—good Spanish piratical stuff in ingots—good, bad, and indifferent people, and the finding of the treasure comes in a crushing finale, incident piled upon incident with the lavish hand of a master of incident."—Daily Chronicle. "Mr. Edgar Wallace constantly astonishes his most faithful admirers by his amazing power of invention. In 'The Black Abbot' the story revolves about the ghostly figure of a monk who terrifies the countryside. Some engaging scoundrels, a delightful heroine, and the accustomed ration of thrills make up an appetising dish."—Westminster Gazette. "Mr. Wallace has come back to the detective story in which he is easily master among the English writers in this generation. It is no wonder that his books are so eagerly read. This is a novel equal to any that he has produced, abounding in thrills."—Daily Mail.


SANDERS

"This is one of Mr. Wallace's 'Bones' series, which means that it deals with West Africa and the doings of clever British officials there in the unending conflict with degenerate white men and wicked natives... certainly good and full of intimate knowledge and strange adventure."—Daily Mail. "Deputy Commissioner Sanders ('Sandi'), though a frankly Kiplingesque figure, is all of a piece, and his ways with the natives and their ways with him an abiding delight... there are some revelations of African magic which make the average Spiritualist wonders seem quite elementary. May 'Sandi' continue."—Daily Chronicle. "The workmanship is as finished as that of Conan Doyle in his great Sherlock days. Each character—British or native—stands forth with extraordinary clearness.... This is a book among a thousand."—British Weekly.


The THREE JUST MEN

"This is as thrilling a book as the famous 'Law of the Four Just Men,' and it will strengthen Mr. Wallace's reputation as a prince of story-tellers."—Daily Mail. "Those insatiable searchers for trouble, Mr. Wallace's 'Just Men,' have again made their appearance in a mystery, 'The Three Just Men,' which lacks none of the thrill and ingenuity of the plot of 'The Four Just Men.' ... One cannot help agreeing with the publishers that 'it is impossible not to be thrilled by Edgar Wallace,' at any rate when he is up to the form he displays in this latest book."—Morning Post. 'The story is as admirably worked out as ever... Hardly a page lacks its compelling interest. It kept me out of bed until the end came.... This is a first-rate story. It has all the correct ingredients appropriately mixed."—Westminster Gazette. "A brisk yarn, splendid going all the way."—Daily Chronicle, "It is all very exciting, and there is plenty of it."—Spectator. "Mr. Wallace keeps us satisfyingly thrilled by the sort of excitehich he purveys with such mastery and inexhaustible vivacity."—Liverpool Post.


The LAW OF THE FOUR JUST MEN

"The stories are ingenious. They are lucid. The chief character, who combines the training of a criminologist with the instincts of a criminal, has just the right touch of oddness. And no time or words are wasted on irrelevant matters.... A word of praise is due to Mr. Wallace for enriching fiction with new modes of murder. The glass of liquid air is in the night tradition, and the annihilation of earthworms was a master stroke."—Outlook. "Probably Edgar Wallace's best 'shocker'—and I use the term in no derogatory sense—was 'The Four Just Men,' which kept its readers in eager suspense until its closing paragraph. Its sequel, 'The Law of the Four Just Men,' is a series of tense short stories dealing with these four gentlemen, whose mission in life was to rectify the mistakes of the law and bring unconvicted master-criminals to justice. All the tales are ingenious and arresting.'—John o' London's Weekly. "Very interesting reading. The plot construction is original and deft."—Aberdeen Press and Journal.


The GAUNT STRANGER

"This is one of Mr. Wallace's most ingenious and thrilling detective tales—a branch of fiction in which he has taken the foremost place... there could be no better book for the beach or country house."—Daily Mail. "'It is impossible not to be thrilled by Edgar Wallace'—thus the caption on the jacket of 'The Gaunt Stranger.' Jacket captions are not always accurate, but this one does not overstate the case.... Mr. Wallace was undoubtedly in good form when he wrote this book."—Morning Post. "There is enough mystery to satisfy even the most exacting reader."—Daily Graphic. "'Mr. Edgar Wallace certainly has the power of creating a tense atmosphere of the kind that makes you glance behind you quickly in a shadowy room."—Observer. "An ingenious plot, a swift succession of dramatic situations leading up to a breathless climax, and occasional flashes of comedy to relieve the sombre shades of crime and mystery, combine to make this a most thrilling story. Interest never flags.... The men and women who people these pages are wonderfully convincing, none more so than the Gaunt Stranger, who is only vaguely described, but whose haunting presence dominates the story."—Glasgow Herald.


The CRIMSON CIRCLE

"Mr. Wallace craftily heightens the tension and suspense with every page."—Times. "Come we to 'The Crimson Circle,' in which Mr. Edgar Wallace, with characteristic energy, rushes us at once into one of the most muddling mysteries in which his soul delights—muddling to the reader, I mean, for Mr. Wallace has the end of the thread iu his left hand all the time he is scribbling away with his right.... The story is really thrilling, and the secret is not easily guessed.'—Bookman. "A capital yarn."—Truth. "Mr. Wallace grips from the first page to the last line. Where absorbing interest is concerned he is the master magi."—Liverpool Courier. "The reader is almost as certain to be as entertained in reading this clever yarn as Mr. Wallace must have been in writing it."—Scotsman. "A gloriously thrilling story."


The GREEN ARCHER

"Mr, Edgar Wallace's latest thriller contains nearly three hundred and twenty closely printed pages, with a surprise for the reader on nearly all of them."—Daily Express. "In' The Green Archer,' Mr, Wallace gives us an amazing wealth of incident, and a villain of a turpitude unsurpassed in sensational fiction."—Punch. "The story, with its vendettas, its secret dungeons, secret prisoners, beautiful heroine, and clever hero, holds the attention from first to last."—Scotsman. "This romance must be ranked as one of the most exciting which Mr. Wallace has written."—Aberdeen Press and Journal. "Mr. Wallace has no rival in this particular style of story.'"—Sheffield Daily Independent. "Breathless incidents and picturesque drama woven with masterly skill and piquant pen."—Western Morning News. "In 'The Green Archer' Edgar Wallace has related an extraordinary story. It is not possible to summarise it here. There are too many complications and strange things happening... the interest is kept up to the last page."—Newcastle Chronicle.


The CLUE OF THE NEW PIN

"Another detective thrill which should make you palpitate."—Daily Chronicle. "It goes with a swing and keeps the reader in a highly proper state of indecision until the last chapter. Somebody killed Mr. Trasmere, who lived in such a peculiar house, and it might have been his valet, or the actress who worked so hard as his secretary, or the Chinaman who was so unlike the 'Chink' of sensational fiction, or the unpleasant Mr. Brown, or—somebody else. Mr. Wallace knows every point in the game, and in this particular book, at any rate, shows no sign of hurry or faltering of invention. It is a really good yarn very pleasingly written."—Sunday Times. "We are baffled again and again in our attempts to solve the mystery."—Church of England Newspaper. "Mr. Wallace is one of our most industrious and ingenious writers... detective fiction is his strongest point."—Queen. "One of the best detective tales we have read for a long time. The mystery is good, the plot is evolved with great skill and vivacity."—Liverpool Post.


The SINISTER MAN

"'It is impossible not to be thrilled by Edgar Wallace,' says the publisher's advertisement, and we agree. Mr. Wallace has in an exceptional degree the capacity to keep his readers on tenterhooks. His plots are always clever; his resources of imagination unrivalled; and nowhere has he better shown them than in this novel, which is one of his very best."—Daily Mail.' Mr. Edgar Wallace's cleverness as a story-teller is well illustrated in 'The Sinister Man.'"—Morning Post. "I know my Edgar Wallace of old, and never take up a new book from his ingenious pen without a pleasant preliminary pricking of the scalp. Here he gives us thrills in full measure, mysteries more intricate than ever... a most stirring tale."—Punch. "The pace is terrific.... The dialogue is crisp, telling, and realistic, the scenes vividly realised... a real tour de force of imaginative action."—John o' London's Weekly. "Mr. Edgar Wallace can be relied on to give us thrills with all the latest improvements.... He knows better than any one how to provoke a state of breathlessness in a reader."—Spectator. "In the realm of sensational fiction there is no living writer who can tell a fresher story than Edgar Wallace."—British Weekly. "As full of incident and excitement as the most exacting reader could like.""—Liverpool Post.


[DOUBLE DAN

"The inexhaustible Mr. Edgar Wallace, whose published works must by this time fill a long shelf, and who has never written a dull story, has made in 'Double Dan' a highly effective use of his method in writing a 'crook story' in the spirit of light comedy, trembling on the verge of farce. As a mystery, his mystery is excellent; not until the final pages are reached does it dawn upon a reader of normal acuteness who Double Dan really is, or, rather, who is really Double Dan, the burglar whose skill in disguise is the admiration of the police of at least two continents. As an entertainment his mystery is just as good, and to any one who experiences difficulty in laughing may be recommended the adventures of the extremely well-conducted Gordon Selsbury as the captive of the resourceful girl who believes him to be Dan masquerading as her cousin and destined husband. The patient will also be helped by a female criminal from America, whose way of saying that Dan is untruthful is: 'That fellow has got Ananias down for the count.'"—Daily Telegraph.


The ANGEL OF TERROR

"Jean Briggerland seems to have deliberately chosen to be beautiful rather than good, and Mr. Wallace recounts the various efforts which this lovely young woman made in hopes of becoming rich as well. As she was not good she had few scruples as to the means she used to fatten her bank account—kidnapping, forgery, blackmail, murder, all serve her purpose. It is possible that she might have won in the end, but for the clumsiness of her father, who took to crime too late in life to be really clever at it, and the ill-natured interference of a solicitor. The latter not only failed to succumb—as did judge and jury—to her beauty, but even wanted to get her hanged, and entirely declined to allow her to murder the dramatically widowed Lydia, who, raised from penury to affluence by a set of curious chances, incurred Jean's avaricious and almost fatal friendship. Mr. Wallace seasons his story with plenty of violent episode, introduces quite a good mystery-man, and in the end cleverly contrives that the same rejected lover should save the lives of heroine and villainess in turn."—Times. "Mr. Wallace is such a master of the art of telling a thrilling story."—Scotsman. "A thrilling romance—a story with a red-hot sensation in every chapter, and sometimes on every page."—Aberdeen Press and Journal.


The STRANGE COUNTESS

"Mr. Wallace has added another to his series of really baffling plots. The manner of his story-telling is as entertaining as ever, his invention as fruitful, his detective as invincible, as cool and as well-bred."—Daily Telegraph. "lf you want your money's worth of mystery and thrills, take this excellent yarn of Edgar Wallace, who never disappoints his enormous public... it is just as gripping in its excitement as anything that the author has written."—Daily Graphic. "The chief charm about Edgar Wallace as a writer of mystery books is that from first to last he keeps the reader guessing. That there is a criminal in the background one is perfectly aware, but it is not usually until the last page that an indication is given of who's who.... The keynote of Edgar Wallace's success is ingenuity, and never has he written a more intriguing yarn than 'The Strange Countess.' ... It is an admirably conceived and ably written story."—Edinburgh Evening News. "Mr. Wallace keeps the pace up to the breakneck standard all through; there is no slowing down until the last page is reached."—Northern Whig (Belfast).


The DOOR WITH SEVEN LOCKS

"Quite apart from the masterly gift of story-telling, Mr. Edgar Wallace possesses a power of invention that is quite uncanny."—Westminster Gazette. "'The Door with Seven Locks' is another Edgar Wallace thriller, a story of criminals and criminality running along ingenious lines. Mr. Wallace has a lively imagination, and the supreme quality (for the ' thrilling ' novelist) of making us believe the incredible. The sevenfold lock on the secret of the Selford viscountcy remains unbroken by the author and his Scotland Yard hero until the last moment, and more than one surprise is sprung by Mr. Wallace, who here enhances a deservedly high reputation as a story-teller."—Evening Standard. "There is sensation in every page of this novel."—T.P.'s and Cassell's Weekly. "The tale 1s a tour de force, leading one to marvel afresh at the author's ability to go on evolving excitement and writing with consistent verve."—Dundee Advertiser.


The MIND OF MR. J. G. REEDER

"A great deal of ingenuity is displayed on both sides in these contests, and the more the reader learns about Mr. Reeder the better he will like him."—Times. "Mr. Edgar Wallace is an author of inexhaustible fertility and imagination, and here he has produced eight detective tales of the very best. Mr. Reeder is a great creation—a 'long-faced gentleman with sandy-grey hair and a slither of side-whiskers,' and it is bad for the criminals who try their wits against his."—Daily Mail. 'To his very large gallery of detectives Mr. Edgar Wallace now adds another portrait which has everything to recommend it—'The Mind of Mr. J. C. Reeder.'... His adventures, as here related, allow Mr. Wallace to show that his imaginative powers are by no means on the wane, and one not only reads through the book at a sitting, but sets it down with a whole-hearted desire for more."—Sunday Times. "It reveals anew Mr. Wallace's power as a teller of thrilling stories."—Glasgow Herald.


Hodder & Stoughton, Ltd., Publishers, London, E.C.4