Edgar Wallace was an English novelist, journalist and playwright, who was an enormously popular writer of detective, suspense stories, and practically invented the modern thriller. His popularity at the time was comparable to that of Charles Dickens one of Wallaces publishers claimed that a quarter of all books read in England were written by him. The Flying Fifty-Five is a novel set in the horse racing community and follows the ups and downs of turf life. Its all great fun and Wallace keeps the action moving along swiftly, as he always did. Although he takes us into some of the intricacies of betting in the horse racing arena, it is not so tedious that you cant get through those sections, but otherwise a wonderfully written, funny and happy ending.