The Clue of the Twisted Candle by Edgar WallaceMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
A writer of clever mysteries is manipulated by someone he believes to be a friend into shooting another man dead accidentally. His wealthy, influential "friend" has done this because he once wanted the woman who is now the writer's wife, and she turned him down.
The writer's actual friend, a Scotland Yard assistant commissioner, tries to prove his innocence. But later, the false friend is murdered in what appears to be a locked room...
A strong classic mystery from Edgar Wallace. Sure, I guessed a couple of the twists, though not how the locked-room murder was achieved. The villain isn't a cheap, cartoonish stock villain; he's well characterized, and believably and thoroughly villainous. (Though to make him so thoroughly awful, Wallace has to make him not English.)
The romance is a bit thin, as they often are in Edgar Wallace, and the love interest is far too young for the detective, but she is resourceful and brave and intelligent, so there's that.
It's been eccentrically edited by someone who thinks that an exclamation mark is a good thing to end a question with, rather than a question mark, and does this constantly. They were also weak on commas after subordinate clauses. I'm blaming an unknown editor, because Wallace himself reputedly rarely did any editing on his books, and I've not seen these quirks in other books of his I've read either.
Wallace's books are all thriller, no filler, and there's plenty to keep you glued to the page.
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