Room 13 by Edgar Wallace Dust Jacket Only Second Impression John Long 1924. Remnants of brown paper backing to verso. VG. Scarce. 

In the rain-lashed gloom of London's East End, mild-mannered bank clerk Peter Jenson is ensnared by the insidious Lazarus gang, a syndicate of extortionists led by the ghostly Mr. Lazarus, whose Room 13 serves as a chamber of horrors for debtors. When Jenson's forged check implicates him in a heist, he's blackmailed into their fold, navigating foggy alleys, clandestine meetings in a sinister hotel, and a web of double-dealings with a femme fatale accomplice. As Scotland Yard closes in, Wallace's thriller crackles with taut suspense, moral peril, and Wallace's trademark pulse-pounding revelations, unmasking the terror behind the numbered door.

Room 13 mesmerizes collectors as a quintessential Wallace rarity, its gangland chiller a staple in his prolific thriller legacy, evoking the era's pulp fascination with underworld menace. Readers grip its relentless pace and Jenson's desperate defiance, akin to Sax Rohmer's exotic perils or J.S. Fletcher's shadowy pursuits. Its cultural punch captures 1920s financial anxieties and criminal glamour, captivating crime fiction devotees. Collectors prize its scarcity among Wallace's works, while readers prowl the dimly lit corridors and twisty betrayals, crowning it a spine-tingling essential for enthusiasts of vintage suspense and numbered-nightmare noir.