6 h 52 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 6 h 52 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
In London's hidden world, false papers conceal the truth—and trust can be as uncertain as the law's next move.
Room 13 draws you into a London shaped by secrets, forgery and uneasy loyalties. In Edgar Wallace's crime thriller, the city offers room for people to hide and motives to stay buried. The law struggles to catch up, while the question of who can be believed gives the pursuit of justice its edge.
Wallace keeps the story moving with short chapters and a plain, direct style. The pull comes from crime, concealment and the effort to discover who is breaking the law. Beneath that brisk action lies a quieter uncertainty: when people hide their motives, how do you decide whom to trust?
What you’ll discover
- A city of shadows Enter the hidden side of London, where a vast city gives secrets space to grow.
- Forgery and false papers Follow a crime story in which false papers place truth and trust under pressure.
- Loyalties under strain Watch uneasy loyalties sharpen the question of who deserves belief and who conceals a motive.
- The hunt for justice Feel the tension of a pursuit in which the law has ground to make up.
- One more short chapter Enjoy direct prose and a brisk rhythm that keep pulling you toward the next page.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this book if you like crime stories with crooks who keep their own code, quick dialogue, dry humour, hidden rooms and a villain whose forged money worries all Britain.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A wedding becomes a revenge trap
- Johnny learns to hide his pain
- Johnny recognises the man behind Floyd
- Silence carries a deadly cost
- Marney refuses to accept the trap
- A shooting leaves competing stories
- Reeder pursues more than a marriage
- The dinner conceals another attack
- Loyalty divides the rivals
Who’s who
- Johnny GrayA cool, quick-witted ex-convict who leaves Dartmoor wanting to win back Marney and bring down the men who set him up.
- Peter KaneA retired master thief who lives as a gentleman and will do anything to protect his daughter's happiness.
- Marney KanePeter's brave, level-headed daughter, tricked into a marriage and determined not to be broken by it.
- Jeff LeggeThe Big Printer, a smooth forger who poses as Major Floyd and wants revenge on Peter Kane.
- Emanuel LeggeJeff's father, a bitter ex-convict who plans to ruin Peter Kane through his daughter.
- Mr J.G. ReederA gentle, shabby investigator who talks about chickens and flowers while hunting the forger of Bank of England notes.
- Detective Superintendent CraigA Scotland Yard man who is an old friend of Peter Kane and wants proof against the Big Printer.
- LilaA maid planted in Peter's house to spy for the Legges, and who has her own reasons to turn on Jeff.
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Room 13 in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Room 13
by Edgar Wallace · 1924
Johnny Gray walks out of Dartmoor to find the girl he loves married to the man who sent him there.
Easy read2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“A squeal is a squeal, whether you do it in cold blood or in the heat of anger.”
In short
What would you do if you walked out of prison and learned that the woman you love had married that very morning, and that the groom is the man who put you inside? Johnny Gray faces that discovery in Room 13.
Room 13 at a glance
- Reading time
- About 3 h 55 min3 h 5 min fast, 4 h 40 min slow
- Length
- 55,900 words
- Library level
- Easy short sentences, plain words
- First published
- 1924by Edgar Wallace
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A prisoner counts his days at Dartmoor
The book opens at a Dartmoor gate carved with two Latin words, Parcere Subjectis, which mean spare the vanquished. Johnny Gray turns them into a joke. Each day he and an old lifer named Lal Morgon harness themselves to a heavy handcart and pull it up a steep slope.
One spring morning Johnny works on a shed as a bricklayer's laborer, where men can talk more freely. Lal chatters about the Big Printer. Old Emanuel Legge and Peter Kane once robbed the strong room of the Orsonic. Legge shot a policeman and got life, while Peter was never caught. Legge's son Jeff now prints false money so good that experts cannot tell it from Bank of England notes.
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Details
- First published
- 1924
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 4 h 30 min
- Level
- Easy read
Cite this edition
Wallace, Edgar. Room 13. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/room-13.
Wallace, E. (2026). Room 13. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/room-13 (Original work published 1924)
Wallace, Edgar. Room 13. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/room-13.
@book{wallace2026room,
author = {Wallace, Edgar},
title = {Room 13},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/room-13},
note = {First published 1924}
}
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What is Room 13 by Edgar Wallace about?
It follows Johnny Gray, released from Dartmoor, as he tries to protect Marney Kane from the Legge family. Emanuel and Jeff Legge want revenge on her father, and Jeff is also the forger known as the Big Printer.
Who is the Big Printer in Room 13?
The Big Printer is the underworld name for the maker of near-perfect forged banknotes that flood Europe. Everyone in the criminal world talks about him, and the police, the banks and Johnny Gray all want to find him.
Who is Mr Reeder?
Mr J.G. Reeder is a mild, sad-faced investigator hired to catch the forger. He talks about chickens, flowers and rabbits, looks harmless and surprises every crook who underestimates him.
The author
Edgar Wallace
1875–1932 · British crime writer
Edgar Wallace was a hugely prolific British writer of thrillers and crime fiction who later co-created the story for King Kong. The Adventures of Heine follows Heine, a German secret agent, through a series of comic misadventures in Britain during the First World War.
“A squeal is a squeal, whether you do it in cold blood or in the heat of anger.”
More by Edgar Wallace
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