SOURCE: A review of The Clue of the New Pin, in The New York Times Book Review, April 15, 1923, pp. 22, 24.

In the following review, the critic notes Wallace's flair for plotting, suspense, and humor in The Clue of the New Pin.

Fiction mystery stories have a marked advantage over those of real life. The reader knows that eventually the criminal will be found out, the tangled skein unraveled. No matter how exciting the opening columns of a newspaper murder report or great gem robbery may be, it profiteth little if in a few days the perplexed police give out the statement that "the department is still working on the crime, but does not expect to have anything further to report for some time." Disillusioned by the fact, the reader may well turn to fiction, with its always obliging last chapters. To meet such a presumed contingency, Edgar Wallace has...