Red Aces: Being Three Cases of Mr. Reeder by Edgar WallaceMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
J.G. Reeder is one of Wallace's few characters that he reused across different books, at least early in his career - though in the first book he's a young man (with an older man as a decoy), and subsequently the older man is Reeder and the young man is never mentioned again, so the continuity is not that strong.
He's a private detective who's also consulted by the police and has some kind of ill-defined connection with the Public Prosecutor's Office, which allows Wallace to have his cake and eat it too. Reeder is independent in terms of what cases he takes on, but he has some semblance of official authority when he needs it.
These three mid-length stories are varied. "Red Aces" is a story of a murder that Reeder happens to come upon on a snowy night, with some theatrical elements and a backstory of organized crime and revenge. His task is to extricate a young man from the elements that make him look guilty and identify the actual culprits. I found the whole thing rather confusing, and for most of it had no idea what had actually happened.
"Kennedy the Con Man" I thought was clever; I was fooled almost to the end. A number of people who had been victims of a scam several years before have disappeared mysteriously, and Reeder is asked to find them.
"The Case of Joe Attymar" had its clever elements too, but I was suspicious of one particular character throughout, though I was never sure. Since we don't get to see all of the evidence that Reeder sees, it isn't a "fair play" mystery.
The construction and unwinding of the cases shows ingenuity and originality, but these are otherwise not top-drawer Wallace. Entertaining, though, certainly.
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