Quelque part à Londres, un inconnu entre dans les bureaux dun journal à scandales. Plus étrange encore, le rédacteur en chef qui le reçoit est masqué. Ce journal aurait-t-il un lien avec le maître-chanteur redouté qui sévit dans la société londonienne ? Puis deux hommes sont assassinés devant la porte du millionnaire Farrington

Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1 April 1875 10 February 1932) was an English writer.Born into poverty as an illegitimate London child, Wallace left school at 12. He joined the army at 21 and was a war correspondent during the Second Boer War for Reuters and the Daily Mail. Struggling with debt, he left South Africa, returned to London and began writing thrillers to raise income, publishing books including The Four Just Men (1905). Drawing on time as a reporter in the Congo, covering the Belgian atrocities, Wallace serialised short stories in magazines, later publishing collections such as Sanders of the River (1911). He signed with Hodder and Stoughton in 1921 and became an internationally recognised author.