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 most popular English authors of the detective genre, the author of the famous "King Kong."
Millionaire Jess Tramsmire is found murdered in his own London home. The door of his room was locked from the outside, and the key was lying on the table near the corpse. On the floor, right there, the investigators discover a small shiny object: an ordinary—only slightly bent—pin, "but it was the only thing that distinguished it from a million pins like it"!
What role does such a banal piece of office stationery play in Trznsmair’s death, which is mysteriously connected with China, where he once served, and with the beautiful actress Ursula Erdferne, in whose company the old man was seen every night?