Here’s the latest addition to my ever-growing bookshelf – THE THREE OAK MYSTERY by EDGAR WALLACE . And therein lies a story……………….
My father was a great fan of Edgar Wallace books, and over the years had accumulated a sizeable collection of his books. However, when he passed away at the early age of 35, a victim to Cancer, we had no choice,but to donate most of his books , due to lack of storage space. I was only 5 years old at that time, and my mother kept only a few books as mementoes for me, among which were only two works of Edgar Wallace- Four Square Jane, and The Forger. As I grew up , I found that I had inherited not only his love for books, which anyway was a very strong thread running through the whole family, but also the same kind of tastes in books that he had. Till date, my mother is surprised that I am so much like him, without even a memory of him. Anyway, to get back to what this post is about– books, I found that I enjoyed the Edgar Wallace books, and tried to hunt out more of them.It was then that I found out from my mother and uncles that he was my dad’s favourite author, and also that very few of his books were available.
Over the years, I have been a member of many libraries, but unfortunately, many of them had not even heard of this talented author. I have since learnt that he was a soldier, a poet, war correspondent, and playwright also. He wrote more than170 books, which have been translated into 28 languages and sales of which have exceeded 50 million copies. Over 160 Films have been made on his books-more than any other author. He was working on the original screenplay for King Kong hen he died . In the 1920s, one of his many publishers claimed that a quarter of all books written in England were written by him.
Quite an impressive biography, isn’t it ? But I found it very difficult to get his books anywhere…
Imagine my surprise , therefore, when I walked into the Higginbotham’s store at Chennai Airport, and on the very first rack were Edgar Wallace books- 10 of them… I was sorely tempted to buy all of them, but I managed to control myself and only bought this one.
I sat up all night to finish reading it, and WoW!!! Enjoyed every page. …Typical Edgar Wallace……Good Plot, Twists and turns everywhere, well written………a book I heartily recommend to all mystery book lovers……….
