Captains of Souls

Book excerpt: "Captains of Souls" is an atypical piece of detective crime fiction work from Edgar Wallace, one of the most prolific British writers of the 20th century. Centring around Ambrose Sault, who has managed to find a rather suspicious way to merge a soul with a body of another, the novel unfolds into a tragedy circling around criminals, financial fraud, blackmail as well as cold murder. The novel takes a turn around the sinister objectives of Salt, whose encounter with the other characters leaves their lives changed forever. Mystery crime drama, comedy of manners and melodrama all at once, "Captains of Souls" makes for a thrilling and well-written read full of suspense and will be enjoyed by fans of Netflix shows such as "Behind Her Eyes". 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".