Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) was an extraordinarily prolific crime writer, journalist and playwright, with over 170 novels and nearly a thousand short stories to his name. Born in Greenwich in impoverished circumstances and with a limited education, he eventually found his niche in the press corps where he honed his writing skills as a war correspondent during the Second Boer War. Returning to London in debt, he wrote detective stories to pay his way and set up Tallis Press, which published the thriller The Four Just Men (1905). The Press was a financial failure but Wallace's continued journalism led to renewed confidence in his writing and he signed with Hodder and Stoughton in 1921, ushering in his most prolific period – in 1928, it was estimated that one in four books being read in the UK was written by him. He moved to Hollywood in 1931 and wrote the initial screenplay for King Kong, for which he is best known, but over 160 films have been made out of his work and with over 50 million copies sold, his legacy stretches far and wide.

Fiona Peters (introduction) is Professor of Crime Fiction in the Department of Criminology at Bath Spa University, UK. She has written extensively on Patricia Highsmith, including Anxiety and Evil in the Writings of Patricia Highsmith (Routledge, 2011). Additionally, she has published widely on crime fiction more generally, and is currently writing a book on Crime Fiction and Literary Criminology. She is the editor of Crime Fiction Studies journal (Edinburgh University Press) and the Director of the International Crime Fiction Association. She also runs the Captivating Criminality conferences series, which attracts delegates from all over the world. Her other research interests include true crime and the study of evil in literature and culture.