Four square Jane

The Readers Library has recently published a large number of the best “crook” stories of the day. Amongst famous mystery story writers whose books have been included in the Library are Edgar Wallace, Sydney Horler, Mrs. Belloc Lowndes, Thea von Harbou, Earl Derr Biggers, and many others. Moreover, there is scarcely a first-class thriller produced on the films but an excellent novelised version of it appears in the Readers Library. Experience has shown that there are scores of thousands of readers who cannot be supplied with too much of this ingenious and absorbing type of fiction. The Readers Library intends to go on selecting as many as possible of the best of these stories, and with the present volume starts a policy of producing them in a series of their own, with a specially designed paper wrapper by which they can be distinguished. “Crook” story devotees will thus be able to recognize good “crook” stories at sight. The Crime Series will contain nothing that is second-class. It makes an auspicious start with an entirely new book by Mr. Edgar Wallace--“Four Square Jane.”

No publisher who has recently had the fortune to produce an Edgar Wallace book can doubt that at the present time Mr. Wallace is easily the best seller in the world. The sales of the Readers Library volumes probably surpass those of any other books on earth. And amongst Readers Library books the four Edgar Wallace volumes which we have already published multiply their sales most phenomenally and quickly. It is a pleasure, therefore, to follow them with yet another of the celebrated writer’s stories, which has never appeared in volume form before, and which cannot be procured in any other edition. It can be said sincerely that “Four Square Jane” is amongst his best stories. It is concerned with a most ladylike crook. She is an uncannily clever criminal, all her female cunning being concentrated on her nefarious work. She makes the mere male detectives and policemen who endeavour to be on her tracks look foolish; and she and Mr. Edgar Wallace between them will successfully baffle readers of both sexes as to her identity. Mr. Wallace is most happy in his knack of getting his readers interested within the first two or three pages of a story in the particular character whom he does not intend to reveal to them until the close of the story. He is especially successful in this volume. Four Square Jane remains an enigmatic person until the end of the book, though in the meantime she is responsible for a series of risky crimes performed with a neatness and cleverness which cannot but evoke admiration. The expression with regard to Mr. Wallace may be becoming hackneyed, but it is undoubtedly true that he has written another masterly mystery story in this case.

Other volumes will follow quickly in The Crime Series, until it is a regular show gallery of clever criminals and clever detectives. Meanwhile, it is a pleasure to introduce (though the actual formal introduction is postponed until almost the last page of the book) the reader to Exhibit No. 1, than whom there will be none more interesting or charming--Four Square Jane!

The Editor.

THE CRIME SERIES