Wallace, Edgar - Flat 2 (1927)

An unfeasibly large number of people visited the home of the unsavoury financier Emil Louba on the night he died - but which of them killed him? Was it:

• the innocent young blonde he was coercing into marriage via her gambling debts?
• her granite-jawed straight-as-a-die fiance?
• the doctor who was waiting in the anteroom?
• the rival kingpin in the upstairs flat?
• the ex-con back from Cairo with a grudge to settle?
• his wife, whom Louba ruined all those years ago?
• the strange little man who's been watching Louba for years?
• or the inscrutable Commissioner from Scotland Yard?

This is vintage Wallace, fairly clued, well plotted and ploddingly unscrambled by Inspector Trainor. Sinister foreigners and secret plots abound, and with the addition of a memorable detective like the Sooper or JG Reeder it could have been a classic. By dividing up the detection three ways, however, Wallace dilutes the effectiveness of his sleuths. A good effort nonetheless.

Jon.