Bis vor kurzem hat ein Schmuggler Mark McGill mit seinem Partner Ronnie Perryman erfolgreich zusammengearbeitet. Doch dieser ist nun tot. Deshalb ist seine Schwester aus Frankreich gekommen. Sie will wissen wie ihr Bruder gestorben ist. Deshalb hat Mark sie an diesem Abend nach Ladys Stairs gebracht. Dort soll sein Untergebener Li Yoseph ihr erzählen, dass die Polizei ihn umgebracht hat. „Mich kannst du nicht umbringen, Mark” sagte der alte Li Yoseph leise. „Ich werde wiede...

Lord Willie Lebanon, Herr auf Schloss Marks Priory, könnte ein glücklicher Mann sein. Aber der alte Lord Lebanon wurde mit einem indischen Tuch erdrosselt. Die Erben versammeln sich und vernehmen den „vorletzten Willen” des Verblichenen: Die untereinander verfeindete Familie soll sechs Tage und Nächte in seinem Schloss verbringen, um sich auszusöhnen, erst dann werde das endgültige Testament verlesen. Die Erben fügen sich der Bedingung und werden bald immer weniger. Bei ihr...

Anthony Newton, der nach vielen Versuchen, nach dem Krieg wieder Fuß zu fassen, sein Auskommen mit Verbrechen verdient. Er hatte den Grundsatz, seine Räubereien auf möglichst höfliche Weise auszuführen. Nur einmal musste er davon abweichen, als er in das Haus des Millionärs Poltue einbricht und diesen erstochen in seinem Bett findet...

Der wohlhabende Londoner Geschäftsmann Trayne hat einen raffinierten Plan ausgearbeitet, um die berühmten Kronjuwelen aus dem Tower zu rauben. Mühelos werden daraufhin die Juwelen erbeutet. Graham gerade aus dem Gefängnis entlassen. Da erfährt Graham von Dinah, dass Trayne ihn betrügen will. Graham schlägt Trayne nieder und flieht mit Dinah und den Juwelen. An Bord des Fluchtschiffs wird Graham versehentlich von Dinah getötet. Hope hat inzwischen die Polizei verständigt. Di...

Ein offensichtlich geisteskranker Serienmörder übt an vermeintlichen Verbrechern, die mangels Beweisen nicht verurteilt werden konnten, gnadenlose Selbstjustiz. Er enthauptet seine Opfer, ihre Köpfe schickt er mit einem Begleitschreiben in Kartons verpackt an Scotland Yard. Als ein Beamter des Außenministeriums umgebracht wird, beauftragt Geheimdienst-Chef Major George Staines den fähigen Detektiv Michael Brixan, die Ermittlungen aufzunehmen. Die Spuren führen ihn in den kl...

Nacht für Nacht Im Herrenhaus von Monks Hall hört man Orgelmusik. Über das Anwesen geistert eine Gestalt in einer schwarzen Mönchskutte. Nachts, wenn der unheimliche Mönch umgeht und sich seine Opfer sucht. Doch wer ist der unheimliche Mönch, der nachts im Herrenhaus umherschweift und seine Opfer sucht? Wird Inspektor Elk noch rechtzeitig eingreifen können?

Zwei Gangsterbanden terrorisieren die Reichen Londons. Die „Gesellschaft zur Sicherung wohlhabender Bürger” garantiert den Reichen Londons Sicherheit – vorausgesetzt, sie bezahlen dafür. Wer der Aufforderung nicht nachkommt oder gar die Polizei verständigt, wird ermordet. Auch Elias Tanner, ein wohlhabender Bürger, wird erpresst. Seine Sekretärin Lilian Ranger findet dies heraus und verständigt die Polizei. Kurze Zeit später wird Tanner ermordet...

1936. „Sanctuary Island” is a crime novel by the pioneer of detective fiction Edgar Wallace (an adaption by Robert Curtis). Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace was born in London, England in 1875. He received his early education at St. Peter’s School and the Board School, but after a frenetic teens involving a rash engagement and frequently changing employment circumstances, Wallace went into the military. He served in the Royal West Kent Regiment in England and then as part of t...

„The Green Pack” is a novel adapted from a successful play by the playwright Robert Curtis. Robert Curtis was the private secretary to British crime writer Edgar Wallace. Curtis and Wallace met for the first time in 1913, before parting following the outbreak of World War One, as Curtis had to do his military service. In 1916, he was discharged from the service after contracting malaria. In 1918 he was reunited with Wallace who employed him as his secretary, he had the task...

The second of Edgar Wallace’s two short story collections about Scottish airman Tam during World War I. In this book Tam is joined by a new young American protégé Billy Best. The stories of Tam the pilot are not mysteries. They are the entertaining stories of the exploits of a cockney aviator who supposedly was Charles Lindbergh’s childhood inspiration to fly. Tam is a real person, and all the adventures set forth have actually happened, though names and places are necessar...

This Edgar Wallace mystery takes place in London. Hope Joyner, ward of a Mr. Hallet whom she has never met, is in love with Sir Richard Hallowell. Diana Montague, who was once engaged to Sir Richard, now keeps very dubious company – Sir Richard’s brother Graham for one. He has just been released from prison. Since Graham has been away Diana has acquired money, and she is now Press Secretary for the Prince of Kishlastan, who according to Colly Warrington, is totally besotted...

Inspector Tillizinni is back, this time involved in the quest to locate an ancient tomb of the Great Emperor – the first Emperor of the Chinese, who died two centuries before the birth of Christ and its world-changing secret. The Society of Joyful Intention – the most bloodthirsty organization the world has known. It concerns Tillizinni also, for Scotland Yard placed him on his mettle, set him a challenging task, which threatened at one time to bring ruin to the greatest de...

A dangerous gang of criminals is imprisoned after a daring robbery, although the ringleader who masterminded the crime disappears with the loot. Finally released after ten years behind bars, they are out for vengeance on the man who betrayed them, and the trail leads to a lonely house haunted by organ music and the specter of a hooded figure who prowls its dark corridors. But the police are on their tail also wanting to find out who was behind the robbery. Another breathtak...

Rather different from the usual Wallace plot, here we have a tramp heading for the Canadian border who marries a girl while in a drunken stupor. Her wedding day was so fraught with danger that she and her husband were forced to flee from the deadly menace that ruthlessly dogged their every move. She learned to avoid the man with the red beard and his swarthy knife-juggling companion. Above all, she feared and avoided Gussie, whose drawl and monocle gave him a deceptive appe...

With the stealing of the fat Englishman’s wallet by Gregory Silinski, commences this extraordinary story of crime. Who are the Nine Bears? Who is Hyatt and the Man of the Eiffel Tower? And where is „LOLO” the secret rendezvous of the Nine? These are only a few of the facers that confront T. B. Smith, Assistant Commissioner from Scotland Yard, until the final dramatic scene aboard the „mad battleship”. This book is one of the most popular novels of Edgar Wallace, and has bee...

An enjoyable short work from Edgar Wallace, originally published in 1915. Few people today would recognize the name „Edgar Wallace” but before his death in 1933 he was a literary force to be reckoned with. He was both prolific and popular and his books reportedly sold at the rate of 5,000 a day. „The Melody of Death” is a novel about a young man who starts behaving strangely upon hearing a certain melody. Fearing that he may be suffering from cancer, Gilbert Standerton asks...

Alva Collins, the mentally unbalanced wife of airline pilot Evan Collins, wants her husband to leave his job. She is neurotic, vicious and unstable but only her brother knows that she is a hopeless psychopath whose condition can only deteriorate. However, she is tragically killed when someone throws a hive of bees into her bedroom. Police deduce that whoever was responsible knew that Alva was allergic to the insects, and suspicion immediately falls on her husband. This earl...

Novelist, playwright and journalist, Edgar Wallace, is best known for his popular detective and suspense stories which, in his lifetime, earned him the title, „King of the Modern Thriller. This early work by Edgar Wallace was originally published in 1934. „The Woman From the East and Other Stories” is an enjoyable collection of short stories that include „The Chopham Affair”, „The Hopper”, „The Silver Charm”, and many more. As the stories are rather short and quite fast-pac...

A murder is committed among the rich of a small town, and with more than one ghost and all the evidence seems to point to a beautiful young woman... „The Valley of Ghosts”, written as one of four detective novels in 1922, is set in the seemingly peaceful community Beverly Green, a place where upper-middle-class families live a secluded life. Why was Stella Nelson with the victim in the middle of the night, shortly before the murder? Who was the mysterious blackmailer who he...

Clay Shelton is an outstanding forger and has been capable of cheating on an entire country. One day is finally arrested, convicted of the assassination for killing a policeman and sentenced to death. His execution is performed and the case is closed. Or this is what everyone thinks, until the judge who sentenced Shelton, his prosecutor and executioner are brutally murdered by „the Terrible People”, an mysterious secret organization. The next name on their list is the one o...

„The Fourth Plague” is an intriguing crime novel that was published in 1913, during the early years of Wallace’s career as a novelist. Here again pits a master detective against a powerful crime syndicate, this time with an Italian background. An Italian secret society, burglary, kidnapping, detectives, mysterious artefacts, remarkable coincidences! This is a tale of the Red-Hand, a criminal organization that makes Count Festini, its secret head, the most dangerous man in E...

Mr. Reeder war ein seltsamer Mann. Er arbeitete nicht für Scotland Yard, aber als Beamter der Staatsanwaltschaft gab er dem Yard seine Rechercheergebnisse jeweils gerne weiter. In der Öffentlichkeit galt er als Detektiv. – Als Ena Panton verschwand, war Mr. Reeder schon seit geraumer Zeit auf der Spur des sogenannten Captain Mannering. Mannering, von allen „Der Captain” genannt, lebt in Hexleigh Manor, einem Landgut in schlechtem Zustand, das in einem großen Park liegt. Mr....

Leicester Crewe bekommt als Erster eine Visitenkarte mit einer gefiederten Schlange und der Nachricht „Damit sie es nicht vergessen! „. Ella Creed schlendert langsam durch den nächtlichen Garten auf ihr Haus. „Wenn Sie schreien, drehe ich Ihnen den Hals um! „ zischt eine Stimme. Ella fährt jäh zusammen. Sie taumelt zurück... Als sie wieder zu sich kommt, ist ihr wertvoller Schmuck verschwunden. Statt dessen findet sie eine Karte mit dem Bild einer gefiederten Schlange. Währ...

Several employees on a nobleman’s estate show up at a former abbey, reputed to be haunted, to search for a hidden treasure. However, a mysterious hooded figure begins killing off those who may have figured out where the treasure is hidden. Who the Black Abbott is, what his purpose is – and how he is connected with the mystery of the treasure – these are the elements of the story. There’s a malevolent ghost, buried treasure, the elixir of life, a crooked lawyer, a tangled ro...