The crimson circle

"The Crimson Circle" by Edgar Wallace is a crime novel written in the early 20th century. It centers on a ruthless blackmail-and-murder syndicate that terrorizes the wealthy, drawing in a famed intuitive sleuth, Derrick Yale, the stolid Inspector Parr, and the wealthy Beardmores. As the gang’s threats escalate, young Jack Beardmore seeks justice for his father while Thalia Drummond—an enigmatic secretary with questionable ties—becomes a pivotal figure whose loyalties are unclear. The story promises a cat-and-mouse hunt for a hidden mastermind who manipulates victims and accomplices from the shadows. The opening of The Crimson Circle introduces a shadowy organization that recruits desperate men in secret, then pivots to a wave of extortion notes culminating in the marked targeting of magnate James Beardmore. After a crimson circle appears on a tree near his estate, Beardmore is shot in a nearby wood; Yale and Parr begin probing clues—spent cartridges, pointed boot prints, cigar ash—while suspicion ripples toward onlooker Felix Marl and the cool, self-possessed Thalia, who is soon arrested for pawning her employer’s idol. Thalia is bound over but promptly summoned by the Circle, installed as secretary at Brabazon’s bank, and told to monitor Marl and movements at the bank; meanwhile a sailor confesses to the shooting as a hired killer and is silenced by cyanide with the Circle’s mark left behind. Early threads interweave Marl’s leverage over banker Brabazon, Thalia’s calculated poise and new assignment, and the rivalry-cum-partnership of Yale and Parr as they begin closing on the gang’s elusive core.