Tajemnicza kula

Edgar Wallace

Emil Louba od lat wodzi na zatracenie mieszkańców Malty. W prowadzonym przez niego domu publicznym niejeden już zostawił majątek, stracił twarz lub wplątał się w szemrane interesy. Nieprawy biznesmen ma wielu wrogów, którzy coraz mocniej domagają się, by opuścił miasto. Należy do nich kapitan Hurley Brown, dowodzący miejscową jednostką wojskową. Gdy jeden z jego podopiecznych, młody obiecujący oficer, popełnia samobójstwo tuż po rozmowie z Loubą, konflikt między żołnierzami a pracownikami przybytku rozkoszy przybiera na sile. Odpowiednia lektura dla Gratka dla miłośników powieści kryminalno-sensacyjnych Earla Derr Biggersa.

Tajemniczy dżentelman

Edgar Wallace

Strzał w eleganckiej posiadłości. Pan domu, sir James Tynewood, w kałuży krwi. Tajemniczy mężczyzna z pistoletem. Nieuczciwe przywłaszczenie drogocennego diamentu. Prywatna detektyw Marjorie Stedman ma ręce pełne roboty! Idealna lektura dla czytelników lubiących odgadywać rozwiązanie zagadki kryminalnej. W 1960 r. powieść doczekała się ekranizacji. Reżyserem filmu pt. "The Man Who Was Nobody" był Montgomery Tully.

Tajemniczy włóczęga

Edgar Wallace

October Jones to zbuntowana młoda kobieta, po śmierci ojca oddana na wychowanie wujowi. Zgodnie z testamentem w dniu 21. urodzin powinna wyjść za mąż - tylko wówczas jej opiekun dostanie swoją część spadku. Krnąbrna dziewczyna, postawiona pod ścianą, wygarnia swojemu narzeczonemu, że wszyscy faceci są nic nie warci i równie dobrze mogłaby wyjść za przypadkowego włóczęgę. Urażony mężczyzna postanawia zemścić się na wybrance - niefrasobliwe słowa dziewczyny staną się rzeczywistością. W 1936 r. powieść została zekranizowana jako komedia kryminalna "Strangers on Honeymoon" w reżyserii Alberta de Courville'a.

Tam O the Scouts

Edgar Wallace

The book consists of 10 short stories about Tam a brilliant Scottish pilot, a thriller novel fan, socialist and cigar addict. The stories of Tam the pilot are not mysteries. Tams dialogue is written phonetically and he is great fun and saves the rather silly pre-Biggles stories from being too ridiculous to be enjoyable. The characters are broad, the situations light, but the stories are exciting and fun. Tam is a real person, and all the adventures set forth have actually happened, though names and places are necessarily fictitious. These are some of the earliest examples of air pulp, which exploded in popularity a decade after this books publication, following Linderbergs famous flight, and the release of Wellmans Wings.

Terror Keep

Edgar Wallace

Terror Keep is a 1927 Edgar Wallace thriller featuring perhaps the most memorable of all Wallaces heroes, Mr. J. G. Reeder. Reeder is at pains to point out that he is not a detective, which is technically true. He is not a policeman, and has no power to arrest suspects. He works as an investigator of banking crime, particularly forgery. He is nonetheless the terror of the criminal classes. This time detective and his attractive secretary, Margaret Belman, almost suffered the wrath of John Flack, an unusual villain who pairs maniacal insanity with genius. Detective and criminal are well matched and the reader is kept in the dark about the outcome of this deadly duel for a long time. Terror Keep is an exceptionally effective and thoroughly entertaining thriller.

The Admirable Carfew

Edgar Wallace

Carfew was an erratic genius, with a horror of anything that had the appearance of discipline, order, or conventional method. So it was with some luck that there was a train disaster while he was working in the newspaper office of The Megaphone. He was dispatched to the scene and came back triumphant: The Spaniard is a fake! shouted Carfew. He had forgotten all about the railway accident. Shortly thereafter, so would his editor. The Admirable Carfew is a collection of loosely linked short stories. The slowly developing fortunes of a young entrepreneur, trying his hand at various deals, from stock dealing to theatre ownership and just managing to scrap through.

The Adventures of Captain Hex

Edgar Wallace

The hero, the discharged Army Captain Reginald Hex, was the prototype for Anthony Newland, whose adventures were related several years later in The Brigand (Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1927). The first two Hex stories were revised and published as Anthony Newland stories in that collection under the titles Buried Treasure and A Contribution to Charity. The stories are adventurous and well written but definitely a product of their time and place. Edgar Wallace was a British author who is best known for creating King Kong. Wallace was a very prolific writer despite his sudden death at age 56. In total Wallace is credited with over 170 novels, almost 1,000 short stories, and 18 stage plays. Wallaces works have been turned into well over 100 films.

The Adventures of Heine

Edgar Wallace

The hapless Heine is trying very hard to be a good German spy in Great Britain during WWI but luck and circumstance are not with him. Every adventure turns out poorly for our dear spy. This collection of stories of Edgar Wallace about Heine was published during WWI and should be taken lightly by readers some may see it as a piece of anti-German propaganda, with Heine as a bit of a hopeless idiot. But the stories are also entertaining and should be read as such. Although these stories of German spy Heine are all linked and follow on from each other it is still very much a short story collection rather than a novel.