The Secret House

An anonymous scandal sheet is bleeding London’s rich and powerful, printing just enough to terrify and demanding silence money to keep the rest quiet. The trail runs to Cainbury House and its veiled, unseen editor, Mr. Brown, and to Poltavo, a smooth foreign adventurer drawn into the blackmail machine and its keeper’s darker plans. Wallace builds his mystery around a hidden mastermind, a threatened heiress, and a house full of concealed rooms and low menace, with a detective closing in on the man behind the curtain. It is vintage Wallace: fast, twisting, and happy to trade realism for a good scare. Free to download here as a PDF and EPUB edition.