The Riddle of the Sands

"The first real thriller." --Ken Follett While on a duck-hunting holiday sailing in the Frisian Isles, Carruthers and his friend Davies become suspicious of German naval activity off the North Sea Coast. The pair decide to investigate, are soon embroiled in a world of suspense and intrigue, and set about foiling nothing less than a plot to invade England. Initially published in 1903, this thriller proved a prescient vision of the Anglo-German conflict that was to culminate in World War I. This adventure is now regarded as the first--and one of the best--spy novels ever written, inspiring such later masters of the genre as John Buchan, Ian Fleming, and John le Carre.

Erskine Childers (1870–1922) wrote The Riddle of the Sands, his only novel, upon his return from the Second Boer War, for which he volunteered for action. He later became a fervent Irish nationalist, and was executed in 1922 by the authorities of the newly independent Irish Free State during the Irish Civil War. Robert Giddings is an eminent literary critic who reviews for such publications as the Guardian, the New Statesman, and the Sunday Times.