The Terror
by Edgar Wallace
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The sensational novel which launched Collins' Detective Story Club in 1929 was by Edgar Wallace, who wrote more crime stories in the 1920s, and more films, than any other author. This new edition of The Terror, with its original jacket artwork, also includes another classic Wallace text, White Face. 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 show more are out for vengeance on the man who betrayed them, and the trail leads to a lonely house haunted by organ music and the spectre of a hooded figure who prowls its dark corridors. The Terror began life as a stage play, then a film, and finally the book that began Collins' Detective Story Club in July 1929.This new edition also includes White Face, the other crime novel Wallace adapted from one of his own plays. A doctor finds a man murdered in a seedy part of London. The police suspect a notorious master of disguise known as 'White Face', and the doctor enlists a reporter to help him track down and unmask the elusive killer. This Detective Story Club classic is introduced by award-winning crime novelist and mystery genre expert Martin Edwards, author of the acclaimed The Golden Age of Murder. show lessTags
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Ah, this was such a nice surprise...there are two stories in this book The Terror and White Face.
I seriously should maybe think about reading book descriptions rather than just be seduced by the pretty covers of books.
Anyway, The Terror was your typical Edgar Wallace thriller focused on madness, crime, and darkest London. To me Wallace didn't write noir as much as a special kind of Gothic crime, including damsels in distress, castles, secret passages, ... oh, and a mad monk.
Yes, the plot is silly, the characters are two-dimensional, and many of the other aspect are utterly ridiculous, but this is just the sort of crime caper one sometimes needs. So, what if it made me laugh out loud that one of the characters suffers from insanity for show more only exactly 2 hours every day? (Or was it 2 hours of sanity? Does it matter?)
I really liked this one. It reminded me a lot of the German screen adaptations of Wallace's work - they are hilariously, charmingly.....dated but they are great guilty pleasures.
White Face took a different approach to the "typical" Wallace story. Yes, this story is also based on organised crime at it's heart, but this one here seemed to be a lot close some of the stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. There is a great twist, but there are also elements that seems to portray some of the crimes as the characters only choice, so almost ask for sympathy from the reader.
It was an interesting change from other works by Wallace that I am familiar with and I love that the story was included in this book (edited by Martin Edwards) but the story was also quite long and drawn out, which didn't work well for me. show less
I seriously should maybe think about reading book descriptions rather than just be seduced by the pretty covers of books.
Anyway, The Terror was your typical Edgar Wallace thriller focused on madness, crime, and darkest London. To me Wallace didn't write noir as much as a special kind of Gothic crime, including damsels in distress, castles, secret passages, ... oh, and a mad monk.
Yes, the plot is silly, the characters are two-dimensional, and many of the other aspect are utterly ridiculous, but this is just the sort of crime caper one sometimes needs. So, what if it made me laugh out loud that one of the characters suffers from insanity for show more only exactly 2 hours every day? (Or was it 2 hours of sanity? Does it matter?)
I really liked this one. It reminded me a lot of the German screen adaptations of Wallace's work - they are hilariously, charmingly.....dated but they are great guilty pleasures.
White Face took a different approach to the "typical" Wallace story. Yes, this story is also based on organised crime at it's heart, but this one here seemed to be a lot close some of the stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. There is a great twist, but there are also elements that seems to portray some of the crimes as the characters only choice, so almost ask for sympathy from the reader.
It was an interesting change from other works by Wallace that I am familiar with and I love that the story was included in this book (edited by Martin Edwards) but the story was also quite long and drawn out, which didn't work well for me. show less
O mais fraco Edgar Wallace que já li. Possui todas as características típicas do autor, mas aparenta haver sido concluído às pressas, antes que o enredo desenvolvesse as personagens e as situações. O livro vai bem até o último terço, mas a precipitação no fim e a falta de explicações muito importantes, que provavelmente o autor nunca pensou em dar, comprometem-no gravemente. Mas vale a pena para os fãs de E.W.
Feb 3, 2010Portuguese (Brazil)
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Among the most prolific of all authors of adventure fiction was the redoubtable Edgar Wallace. Born in London, Wallace received his early education at St. Peter's School and the Board School. Wallace served in the Royal West Kent Regiment in England and later as part of the Medical Staff Corps stationed in South Africa. During World War I, Wallace show more acted as a special interrogator for the War Office. As was the case with a number of successful popular authors, Wallace experienced a rich and diverse life before turning to professional writing. From 1886 to the 1930s, he worked in a printing shop, a shoe shop, and a rubber factory, and served as a merchant sailor and milk deliverer. Beginning in 1899, Wallace became a journalist and wrote variously for the London Daily Mail and the Rand Daily News, among others; he also worked with the racing periodicals, having founded two of them---Bibury's Weekly and R. E. Walton's Weekly. Like Sax Rohmer, Wallace earned a fortune from his writings, yet, because of a lack of business sense and a tendency to overspend, he died in debt. A prodigious writer of fiction, Wallace published, over the course of his professional life, some 173 books and wrote 17 plays. Many of his adventure narratives featured elements of crime or mystery, but they all thrived on action. Although Wallace's handling of plot was superb and he was respected for his ability to blend suspense with humor, he was less successful with his characters, who tended to be two-dimensional and stereotyped. One of his early crime adventures, The Four Just Men (1906), introduced what was to become a trademark for Wallace---lurid sensationalism coupled with dramatic violence. Wallace published in a wide range of genres, including poetry, short fiction, autobiography, and epic political history. Regrettably, much of what he wrote has lapsed into obscurity today. As sometimes is the problem with popular fiction, perhaps it was too hurriedly written---too intimately connected with its contemporary audience---to stand the ultimate test of time. But Wallace's work was highly influential, especially in the American pulp magazine markets of the Great Depression, and stands today, despite its many flaws, as some of the most effective literary adventures ever written. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Terror
- Original title
- The Terror
- Alternate titles*
- Straszliwy hotel
- Original publication date
- 1929
- Related movies
- The Terror (1928 | IMDb)
- First words*
- Der unheimliche Mönch: O'Shea befand sich schon die ganze Nacht über in einer entsetzlichen Stimmung.
Der Klub der Vier: Der äusseren Erscheinung nach machte Douglas Campbell einen wenig freundlichen Eindruck. - Last words*
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Der unheimliche Mönch: Er lachte auch noch, als Hallick und drei andere Beamte von Scotland Yard ihn in ihrem Wagen nach London brachten.
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Der Klub der Vier: "Es ist Ihre Sache, dafür zu sorgen. Aber vorher kommen Sie bitte mit und helfen sie mir, das Korsett aufzuschnüren." - Original language*
- Englisch
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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- Reviews
- 2
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- (3.17)
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- 18 — Czech, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Latvian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Turkish
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- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 15
- ASINs
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