Wallace, Edgar - The Terrible People (1926)

This is classic formula Wallace. All the ingredients are there: the girl in her twenties who finds herself in peril, threatened with a forced marriage - or worse; the financier with a mysterious past; the criminal masterminds with a sinister hold over their reluctant henchpeople; the insouciant hero who laughs at death and overthrows their plans at the last minute; the sinister jewellery and the cryptic message. There is even a locked-room puzzle and some cross-dressing thrown in for good measure.

And yet - like most of Wallace's formula-books - it comes off. The millionare policeman, 'Betcher' Long, rescues the pretty stenographer, Nora Sanders, none the worse for her druggings and abductions. The bad-girl-turned-good is saved from a life of crime; her associates suffer appropriate fates. The locked-room murder is solved. It's two hours of pleasant, reassuring entertainment, courtesy of the Master.

Shame about the title, though.

Jon.