*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for our books categories, with an image for each book. This week, we return to our Crime, Spies & Sleaze category, for the third and final part of our inventory for the formidable crime, mystery and thriller author Edgar Wallace. Edgar Wallace died at 56 in 1932 (during the script drafting for the original King Kong film), but despite his relatively short life, had a reputation for being very prolific. One of his publishers claimed that a quarter of all books in England were written by him. As well as journalism, Wallace wrote screen plays, poetry, historical non-fiction, 18 stage plays, 957 short stories and over 170 novels, 12 in 1929 alone. More than 160 films have been made of Wallace’s work. I can remember growing up with re-runs of his characters The Four Just Men (who had their own TV series), plus the Edgar Wallace Mystery Hour, an anthology series of his mysteries and thrillers. Later, there was The Mind Of Mr J G Reeder, a detective series in 1969-1971. So Wallace’s popularity continued way beyond his death, although it has faded somewhat in the 21st Century, with few of his books still in print. His output earned him the title ‘The Man Who Wrote Too Much’ and I can recall in one of Agatha Christie’s Tommy & Tuppence novels, there was a reference to a bookshelf with a ‘yard of Edgar Wallace’. We conclude our inventory of Wallace in our re-listings this week, including an edition published in his lifetime, which is among the oldest books we have, plus a couple of adventures with the off-beat detective Mr J G Reeder. Condition notes and more about each book in our catalogue.
PICTURED: ALL BY EDGAR WALLACE ALL SOLD
MR JUSTICE MAXWELL Ward Lock 1928 1st UK PB? FA £10
ON THE SPOT Avon 1948 US PB GD £6
RED ACES Great Pan 1962 2nd UK PB VG £4 J G Reeder
THE RINGER Pan 1957 5th UK PB VG £5
TERROR KEEP Pan 1964 UK PB FN £6 J G Reeder
THE TRAMP Pan 1965 1st UK PB thus VG £5
THE VALLEY OF GHOSTS Great Pan 1960 2nd UK PB thus VG £5