Prophetic and chilling at once, Edgar Wallace’s alternate history crime novel Private Selby deals with the author’s fear of a potential German invasion of Britain shortly before the outbreak of the Great War. Credited with being one of the writers who predicted the First World War, the novel follows the life of a young rascal Dick Selby, who enters the British military and whose life spins into unexpected disarray as a result of a sudden invasion. From that moment on, his life becomes an arena of conflicting feelings and emotions, reflecting his traumatic wartime experience. A true page-turner, the short novel combines the best of military fiction, love-filled drama and crime and is a must-read for fans of both classic crime fiction and military history.Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) was a prolific English mystery and crime writer with such an impressive output that one of his publishers claimed he was behind a quarter of all books sold in England at that time. An author, journalist and poet, Wallace wrote countless novels, short stories, screen plays, stage plays and historical non-fiction. Over 160 films inspired by his work have been made worldwide, more than any other author ever and over 50 million copies of his books were sold during his lifetime. He died suddenly in Hollywood in 1932, during the initial drafting stages of his most famous and enduring work, King Kong .
