Edgar Wallace (1875–1932) — an English writer, playwright, screenwriter, and journalist. A contemporary of Arthur Conan Doyle, who surpassed Doyle in popularity for a time as the creator of the very Sherlock Holmes. Edgar Wallace is one of the best-known English authors of the detective genre.
… trapdoors with slamming lids, accomplices, disguises, unexpectedly appearing doubles, hiding places in writing desks, exotic dens, hidden tunnels and underground passages—an intricate network of the criminal world, woven by experienced hands, stretching even to aristocratic salons—everything draws in and fascinates the reader in Edgar Wallace’s famous crime novels.