Edgar Wallace 
The Daffodil Mystery 

Edgar Wallace, a British novelist, wrote the 1920 suspense novel The Daffodil Mystery. Starring in it are Chinese assistant Ling Chu and detective Jack Tarling. Odette Rider is fired by Thornton Lyne for turning down his favours. Investigator Jack Tarling, who had been working in China and had just returned to London, went to the store to talk about the situation when his cousin Thorton Lyne’s cashier Milburgh embezzled money from his firm. Out of annoyance with Odette rather than anybody else, Lyne decides to attempt to blame the theft on her. Odette wins Tarling over without delay. When Lyne is found dead in the park with one of Odette’s nightgowns wrapped over his gunshot wound, it doesn’t seem good for her. But Tarling is adamant about proving her innocence.

Milburgh is repulsive, and Lyne hisses. Although she may be gorgeous, they don’t really know one another well enough to talk about love. Ling Chu is evasive and not fully trustworthy. The text is colourless and serves just to forward the story.